


Two Make a Brighter Light

by Squatta



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M, Romance, Slow Build, background kikuro - Freeform, more characters may be added later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-01-13 15:22:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 50,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1231462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squatta/pseuds/Squatta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They met through basketball, and everything changed after that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Although I have a few more stories planned for AoKaga, this is one I've wanted to do for a while. This is pretty much my canon headcanon(?). I plan for it to be a pretty slow build and, hopefully, pretty long. I wanted to do this when the manga was complete, but I decided I was too impatient for that.
> 
> I chose not to rate it yet since I really can't say how mature I plan for this to be.
> 
> Warnings:
> 
> \- **Manga spoilers!** If you watch the anime only, most of this fic will be spoilers! I have a feeling the second season won't go past the Yosen match and this manga will take place mostly after that starting as early as chapter 2.  
>  \- Mentions of KiKuro

The Generation of Miracles were what Kagami was expecting and more. He didn't have much confidence in the basketball that Japan had in store for him, but he ended up pleasantly proving himself wrong when he had encountered these monstrosities. When Seirin defeated Kise and the Kaijou team that was only the beginning of what the GoM had in store for him. Midorima and Shuutoku were even more challenging and victory seemed to barely be in their grasp. But when it came to Aomine… it was an entirely different story.

Upon meeting the ace of the Miracles, Kagami knew he was on a completely different level from what he had previously witnessed with Kise and Midorima. He was a bit shocked to see that Aomine knew of him too when they met on that court before the game. But letting down his defenses around his future rival was not an option. Still, Touou managed a crushing defeat over Seirin when it came to the Interhighs. Aomine's superiority complex and lone-wolf attitude irritated the hell out of Kagami, but he couldn't help but to admit that he was definitely a worthy opponent.

Touou's defeat changed Seirin; their entire training completely revised to prepare for the next tournament: the Winter Cup. All that was on Kagami's mind was that he had to defeat these Miracles, and if he couldn't get past Aomine then he might as well quit right then and there. When hearing that Touou was going to be their first opponent at the Winter Cup, a moment of shock was quickly replaced with a moment of adrenaline. It was an adrenaline rush of excitement, of eagerness, to go up against one of his greatest opponents again so soon.

With a promise of victory to his rival, the Winter Cup commenced and that's when Kagami discovered his true potential and Aomine's revival of a part once lost to him.

It was the last thirty seconds of the game and in a miraculous play Kagami stole the ball from Aomine, swiftly passing it to Izuki who then passed it to Hyuuga, dunking it into the net to create a one point difference. The audience roared in applause at the already intense game unfolding in front of them.

The Touou team looked on in shock, but not just because of the point scored against them, but because of the state of their ace. Ever since both he and Kagami had entered the zone there was a fire building up in him that that his team had never seen before. As Susa offered a hand to help Aomine up, the younger swatted him away, insisting it was nothing and stood up himself. That's when his team noticed the look on his face: the hunger to dominate this game had somehow been amplified from being bested by Kagami.

It took a mere fifteen more seconds for Aomine to return the favor, using his infamous formless shot to create the three point gap again. Aomine was convinced that he had finally stopped Seirin in their tracks. He wasn't going to let them win that easily.

But Kagami and the rest of Seirin still hadn't given up. Kagami went in for a dunk but Aomine was right there with him, blocking the shot with ease, confident that he had Kagami cornered. What Aomine didn't expect was for Kagaimi to pass the ball right then and there. In the blink of an eye, Kagami slammed the ball off to the side, Teppei catching it and making the shot. Wakamatsu attempted a block, but despite his efforts, Teppei managed to score the basket, creating the one point gap once again. Wakamatsu's block was deemed a foul, earning Seirin one free-throw.

Both teams knew Teppei was going to miss the basket on purpose. There was no way Seirin could afford putting themselves through overtime by tying the game. Aomine glanced over at Kagami, he couldn't help but acknowledge the assist he had just made. He had already acknowledged Kagami's power once during the game, but the guy just kept proving to him that he was more than he initially thought.

The atmosphere was tense and everything seemed to be in slow motion as Teppei made his shot. Both teams braced themselves for the rebound. It wasn't a surprise when Kagami shot up above the other Touou players, grabbing the ball in mid-air, ready to go in for another dunk.

Aomine hadn't let up this entire game, so there was no way he was going to stop now. He met Kagami in the air, slamming it away from his grasp and sending the ball across the court.

No one expected what happened next. Even the Touou team was late to react. Kuroko had beaten them to the ball; he already had the ball in his hands before any of them had even reached it. It wasn't that Kuroko didn't believe that Kagami would make the basket, rather that he believed in both his former and current light. He believed that Aomine would fight back, but he believed more in Kagami – that whether or not he made that initial basket, he would still go on to win the game.

Kuroko's ignite pass rocketed the ball across the court. Once again it was an all-out battle between Kagami and Aomine. Both jumped with everything they had; they couldn't help but shout as both reached out towards the ball.

Aomine tried with everything could. Every fibre in his body reached out to that ball, but still another hand beat him to it. In that moment, time slowed and Aomine couldn't help but recall a memory from his middle school days. Kuroko assuring him that he'd find someone – that one day Aomine would find a person that was worthy of being his opponent, someone that would make basketball worth playing again.

There was a sound of a blunt slam followed by an incredibly brief moment of silence before scoreboard buzzed. Aomine's feet touched the ground, his mind in a haze. The referee blew his whistle signaling the end of the game and the gym exploded with the sound of applause.

The members of Seirin cried and jumped in joy, even Kuroko had an immovable smile on his face. All of them gathered around Kagami, giving him congratulatory jabs and pats on the head.

On the other end, the members of Touou remained frozen and silent, tears forming in the eyes of a few of the members. Aomine still stood in his haze; he couldn't even keep his thoughts in his head and spoke them aloud. His eyes drifted towards the score board that displayed the final scores.

Seirin – 101  
Touou Academy – 100

"I… lost? I see… So I actually… lost." He wasn't sure what to feel. It was as if his emotions had broken in that moment as he just watched Seirin celebrate their victory.

The shout from the referee asking the teams to line-up barely shook him out of his haze. His eyes wandered over to Kuroko as he heard his former teammate's name called out by one of the other Seirin players. Kuroko could barely stand, his legs shook and his body collapsed as they could no longer support his weight. Aomine's reaction was late to what was happening in front of him and failed to react, but Kuroko was quickly grabbed by none other than Kagami.

Kagami asked if Kuroko was alright and lifted the smaller boy's arm over his shoulder. Aomine cast his eyes off to the side. With the state that Kuroko was in, it was hard to even tell who actually won the game, he mumbled said thought aloud.

"Why are you making that face as if it's the end of the world?"

Aomine's eyes shot back up as he heard a rough voice speak up in front of him. Kagami was looking at him, eyes unwavering as he continued to support Kuroko on his shoulder.

"This is just getting started. Let's play again. I'll take you down anytime."

Aomine's eyes widened a bit; he couldn't tear them away from the red-head's face. This man that had beaten him, this man that had actually given him the challenge he never thought he'd get, this man standing in front of him already talking about their next game against each other – he was the one Kuroko was talking about, Aomine was sure in that moment.

Kagami Taiga was the one – and Aomine felt a churning in his in stomach that shot up throughout his body.

But he shook that feeling quickly, slowly coming back to his senses, "Shut up, dumbass," he scoffed.

"Aomine-kun," another voice, all-too familiar, called out to him.

Aomine couldn't help but recall how he had taunted his former teammate during the game, claiming that his basketball wasn't going to win.

"It's your win, Tetsu," Aomine said in a steady voice. Kuroko had proven him wrong; his basketball really was good enough, and although Aomine was stubborn he could admit when he had been defeated.

"Can I ask for one thing…?" Kuroko spoke up again, this time raising a fist out towards Aomine. "You have yet to meet my fist from that time."

Aomine flustered up, wondering why something so silly was important to him. Kuroko insisted that he felt ignored and Aomine couldn't help but go along with his whims.

"I'm gonna win next time," Aomine said, finally meeting his fist with Kuroko's.

Kuroko smiled slightly and nodded.

* * *

Aomine opted not to join the rest of his teammates in the locker room after the game. He just couldn't be around other people at that moment. And although his senpai were probably feeling worse than he was as it was their last game, he couldn't help but feel that he needed some alone time. He found a relatively quiet place on some steps outside of the coliseum and sat down, lying back with his hands behind his head.

He let out a long sigh and looked up at the sky, letting the events of that day sink in. Images of the game flashed through his mind, most of them with Kagami glaring daggers into him.

Aomine had honestly felt that despite Kuroko's words, he really wouldn't find someone that would give him the challenge he wanted. He had given up almost completely once he got to high school. Playing had become boring and that made practice even more of a drag. He neglected to go because even if he didn't practice, his opponents were still barely a challenge.

He thought back on his game against Seirin during the Interhighs. Kagami had definitely piqued his interest then, but he ended up defeating his potential rival anyway. Although Aomine couldn't quite rule him out, because Kagami along with Kuroko definitely didn't give up during the entire game – Seirin as a team never gave up. But he could still beat them, and Aomine remained the same.

But this game had changed everything; Seirin was like an entirely new team. They must've done nothing but practice, but most of Aomine's attention was on Kagami. It was like his presence had increased tenfold – he could even go into the zone. Aomine hadn't felt that excited about playing a game in a long time, and Kuroko's words rang in his mind again and again.

"There you are!" A voice rang through the silence and Aomine was dragged out from his thoughts. "Don't go disappearing off like that! Come on, let's go back to the others," Momoi walked up to him in a huff.

Aomine remained silent for a moment, "Hey, Satsuki, are you free tomorrow?"

Momoi wondered aloud over Aomine's inquiry.

"Wanna go shopping together?" He continued.

Momoi jumped slightly in shock, stumbling over her words, "Sure… but why so suddenly?" It was extremely rare for Aomine to make a request like that.

"I want to get new basketball shoes," Momoi's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Ah… I wanna practice," the words left Aomine's lips without much of a thought.

That's right: he actually felt the urge to practice. He wanted to play again… how long had it been since he had this feeling? He couldn't help but find it… exciting. But he held that feeling in – he wasn't one to wear his emotions on his sleeve.

Momoi's face softened into a smile. Could this really be her friend finally returning to his old self? She had hoped for this day to come and prayed that her instincts were right. "Okay, let's go, Dai-chan!"


	2. Chapter 2

Kagami couldn't believe he and half of his teammates passed out in the locker room right after the match was over, but he had never felt more drained in his life than he did in that moment. He was pretty sure he even dreamed about the match, but as one who never really remembered his dreams, he couldn't be too sure.

When the whole team had collectively decided that, for some reason, they were going to have dinner at Kagami's house, although he was somewhat irritated, he couldn't help but feel a little happy to have all of them over. Riko had somehow managed to make the hotpot they were planning to eat while the rest of them were distracted over Kagami's apartment. And the food was… surprisingly good. …Well, until everyone literally fainted from it about half an hour later.

But before that, Kagami had stepped out onto his veranda to take a breather from the hustle and bustle of his teammates. And of course, Kuroko was right behind him to surprise him once again with that minimal presence of his. Kagami didn't have time to grumble, though, as Kuroko got right to the point and told Kagami 'thank you'.

"I'm glad that I met you," Kuroko said with a rare smile on his face.

Kagami flustered at that. Kuroko was always straightforward but he would've never expected him to say something so embarrassing. But despite that, he was happy, because he was glad to have met Kuroko too, he was glad to have met all of his teammates. Without them he wouldn't even be where he was now.

Upon returning to Japan, Kagami wasn't necessarily what you would call 'team-oriented' and planned to overtake the Generation of Miracles by his own doing. It didn't take long for him to become humbled by the Miracles and his teammates, and he was grateful for it.

Besides his entire team being put in danger by Riko's cooking and the unexpected addition of a naked Alex, Kagami was feeling happy and confident before going into the remaining Winter Cup matches.

Since Alex was now currently staying with him, she insisted on teaching him in what little time they had before the match.

"You've always been the determined type, Taiga, but you seem more motivated now than ever." Alex walked up to Kagami who was sitting on a bench and handed him a bottle of water.

"Well, after that Touou match I feel kind of… rejuvenated? I'm not sure exactly, but now I know we're one step closer to winning the tournament." Kagami wiped the sweat from his brow and took a long swig from the bottle.

"After seeing one of those Miracles in action… Midorima, was it? My whole perception of basketball in Japan has changed. You're definitely up against some monsters, and on top of that you'll be facing Tatsuya." Alex sat next to Kagami.

"I was the same; I think I underestimated the Generation of Miracles at first. And Tatsuya…" Kagami drifted into thought. Himuro had said that their relationship as brothers would come to an end after their next match that would break their tie. Kagami didn't want that, he knew Himuro was competitive and that he always thought of himself as Kagami's older brother, but a basketball match shouldn't determine the outcome of their relationship.

The streetball tournament ended up in them having to delay their match until the Winter Cup. On top of planning to win the match against Yosen, Kagami had to prove to Himuro that their relationship as brothers didn't have to end.

"I plan on defeating him," Kagami said with confidence, standing up from the bench.

"Well then, we have a lot more practicing to do," Alex did likewise and gave Kagami a hard pat on the back.

* * *

For some reason, Kuroko had called Aomine out all of a sudden. The two of them hadn't spent time together since middle school, and now that Seirin had managed to defeat Touou, Aomine could only imagine what his former shadow could want.

When Kuroko came straight out and asked Aomine to teach him how to shoot, he couldn't help but think – why? But he had seen Kuroko's determination firsthand. If there was anything Kuroko could do for his teammates, he'd do it. That pure-hearted determination always irritated Aomine, but it was also something that he couldn't help but admire about Kuroko. There weren't many people he knew that showed as much passion as Kuroko… well, except maybe Kagami, although he was a bit different from Kuroko in that respect.

Kuroko's determination allowed Aomine to show his weak side to his friend, and after watching Kuroko royally suck at shooting baskets for a while, he couldn't help but confide in Kuroko about how he felt since the game.

"I haven't been able to sleep since then," Aomine slid down against the court wall and looked up at the night sky. Kuroko stood by quietly with the basketball in his hand. "Every time I close my eyes I see scenes from the match… It's that feeling I've forgotten for a long time. Although it was my worst night, I can't wait to play basketball again."

Kuroko widened his eyes in surprise, but soon his face softened into a slight smile, remembering the times that he and Aomine had always practiced together. Maybe there was hope for his friend, because he had finally been shown that there were still things for him to love about basketball.

* * *

The game against Nakamiya South went off without a hitch. They may have needed a little pick me up from Riko mid-game (if that's what you'd like to call a slap on the face), but Seirin secured their win with an 83 to 77 score. They also went on to defeat Kougomo North 87 to 82.

But that was only a warm-up, as their next opponent was Yosen, the match Kagami was waiting for. And as if the team needed any more reason to be intimidated, they had come to learn that Yosen had absolutely crushed their other opponents; all of their games ended up with the other team not scoring a single point.

If that wasn't enough to shock them into being completely serious about this match, Kagami didn't know what else could, but intimidation does not destroy one's determination. Although Yosen's incredibly strong defense was nothing to underestimate, all of Seirin were determined to give everything they had.

"Kise-kun's match is also today," Kuroko commented to Kagami as they made their walk inside the coliseum.

"Is that so…" Kagami replied, not having much interest in other team's games at the moment. Although he was pretty confident that Kaijou was going to be advancing after today.

"Yes, although I don't much about their opponent today, it will be right after our match so we should watch," Kuroko replied.

The previous day, Kuroko had excused himself early after a bit of one-on-one practice with Kagami. He wanted to show Kagami what he had learned from practicing with Aomine, but had to leave suddenly because of a call he'd gotten. Kagami heard Kuroko say Kise's name, so that's who he assumed Kuroko went to go meet. It was a bit strange considering that Kuroko seemed to be nothing but cruel to the model, so Kagami didn't think they had that close of a relationship.

"Yeah, that sounds good, we need to scope out our opponent for the next game anyway," Kagami glanced over at Kuroko.

Once they got to the locker room and the start of the game was fast approaching, Kagami reached at the necklace that he always wore and slid it off of him. Gripping tightly at the chain, he reminded himself of what the ring at the end of it symbolized before placing it in his bag.

* * *

"Why the hell are you dragging me out to this match?" Aomine grumbled at Momoi as they walked in through the doors, looking out onto the court with a heated game already being played.

"You owe me for ditching me!" She replied. Aomine tsked as his eyes drifted towards the scoreboard.

"Huh!? 18 to 0!?" Momoi said in surprise.

Of course, Seirin was playing against Murasakibara. He was basically a wall with two legs. But he wasn't only good with defense – he was fast and could score basket after basket. It really wasn't a surprise to see Seirin losing at the moment, although for a team with high such offense, it was a bit of a shock to they hadn't scored a single point.

It didn't take long for Aomine to witness what he had allowed himself to be dragged along for: Kuroko's phantom shot. It only made sense for Kuroko to combine elements from his vanishing drive to make up for his lack of shooting skill, so he and Kuroko had practiced this new technique. And it seemed to be working well, Seirin ended up getting their first points in and it all started to unfold after that.

Although Aomine's curiosity had been over how Kuroko would perform, he couldn't help but have his attention get wrapped up in Kagami from time to time, especially when the 2nd quarter had ended, Kuroko was benched.

There was also someone else who caught Aomine's attention almost immediately: Yosen's #12.

 _'He's even getting the best of Kagami,'_ Aomine thought, narrowing his eyes slightly, watching the match closer than he had previously.

Even when Kagami was subbed out and back in, it seemed to only fuel Kagami's focus. But that's when Murasakibara started to actually play seriously. Seirin had been struggling with him before, but now he started to actually give his 100%. That's how he was, Aomine thought. Murasakibara wasn't particularly serious about basketball most of the time, but he hated to lose more than anything.

But despite everything, despite a broken basketball hoop, the extremely talented Himuro, and Muraskaibara managing to enter the zone in the very last seconds of the game – Seirin pulled off another narrow defeat 73 to 72.

Kagami had made another miracle, getting into the zone a second time. Aomine smiled slightly despite himself, because he could tell the very moment Kagami had entered the zone – of course, he had witnessed it firsthand himself. Aomine felt himself get excited watching Kagami face off against the beast that was his former teammate, Murasakibara. Kagami really was full of surprises. Kuroko even pulled off a shocking play himself, actually managing to block Murasakibara's shot and securing the victory for Seirin.

Aomine turned around with a 'hmph' as the arena still echoed with applause. Watching these games just made him all the more antsy to get back to playing basketball. But that wasn't the end, Momoi went on to tell him that Kise's match was next.

* * *

Seirin didn't have much time to celebrate as they wanted to get ready to watch the match between Kaijou and Fukuda, since the winner would be their opponent in the next game tomorrow.

But Kagami had other things to do, mainly attending to fix his relationship with Himuro. During the match, he felt that his weakness was his desire to hold on to their relationship as brothers, and even requested of Kuroko to throw away his necklace. But in Kuroko's infamously blunt way of putting things, he let Kagami know that that was a terrible idea, and that there has always existed the possibility of them being both brothers and rivals.

So Kagami made a sprint to find Himuro after the game. But what he didn't expect was to see Alex being manhandled by some guy that apparently went by the name of Haizaki. Luckily, Alex had always been one to be able to handle herself and Kagami was stopped by Himuro before he risked getting disqualified for harming another player. With the addition of Kise showing up, Kagami learned that this Haizaki was not only on Fukuda, but a former Teikou player as well.

That incident cut Kagami's discussion with Himuro short as the match was about to begin. Before returning to the court, Kise assured Kagami that he wouldn't lose against some like Haizaki.

* * *

"I believe in you, Kise-kun!"

At that moment, Kuroko was probably the most noticeable since Kagami had met him. He had to admit, he was getting pretty damn worked up over the game too with how dirty Haizaki's tricks were, but he never could've imagined Kuroko standing up and shouting at the top of his lungs.

Although the crowd didn't know where that shout came from, Kise seemed to know exactly where Kuroko was, and it seemed to be just the boost of confidence he needed within himself. Kaijou went on to defeat Fukuda with Kise's display of perfect copy using moves only the generation of Miracles could pull off.

The crowd cheered at their victory, Kise looked up towards the stands with smirk and a raised fist. Both Kagami and Kuroko were grateful that their next opponent was a worthy one.

"I can't believe you can actually shout like that," Kagami commented as they made their way to file out of the coliseum.

"Kise-kun seemed to be troubled; I could tell Haizaki was saying things to try and get under his skin. He just needed a snap back into reality. I know you wanted just as badly as I did for Kaijou to be our next opponent." Kuroko responded, shifting his bag on his shoulder.

"Yeah, that's true. Kise promised he would win, so if he hadn't I would've had to beat some sense into him," Kagami laughed. "Still, I never thought I'd hear you shout like that."

"I believed in him from the beginning. I didn't have the chance to tell him before the game, so my only opportunity was right then and there," Kuroko's gaze shifted away from Kagami.

Kagami laughed again, "You're a little strange sometimes," he joked.

"Kagami-kun, you're one to talk."

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

* * *

Aomine arrived home, massaging at his knuckles that not too long ago, plowed their way straight into Haizaki's face. He probably wouldn't have been so reckless if he was still in the running for the tournament, but it felt good to put the asshole in his place.

It pissed him off to see someone like Haizaki trying to break Kise's composure like that. Yeah, Kise was annoying at times, but he truly loved basketball, he even prioritized it over his precious modeling career. Having someone like Haizaki trying to destroy that for Kise was unacceptable. For people like Kuroko and Kise, even Aomine knew that the Winter Cup was important to them, and their battle had no room for someone like Haizaki to interfere with.

He let out a long sigh as he removed his shoes and shrugged his coat off of his shoulders. Making his way through the living room, he noticed his father sitting on the couch.

"I'm home," he mumbled.

His father glanced at him with sharp eyes. He was a damn intimidating man, and Aomine knew that's where he got some of his features from.

"Where were you?" He asked. His father's voice always had a deep tone to it.

"I went to watch some matches at the Winter Cup with Satsuki," Aomine replied, stopping behind the couch.

His father gave a hmph. "I thought you were already out of that competition."

"I am, but I still want to see who's going to win," Aomine narrowed his eyes, he was glad that his dad couldn't see him at that moment.

"Since when did you start caring about basketball again?" His father replied.

Aomine paused for a moment, "I never stopped caring, it just became boring…" He turned and started walking towards his room.

"Is that how you feel about your schoolwork too? Quit slacking. If your mother gets another damn phone call from the school saying you've missed your class you aren't going to like what happens next."

Aomine tsked under his breath and slammed his bedroom door shut behind him.

His father hadn't always been like this. In fact, they had a pretty good relationship when he was younger; his father even did a lot to encourage his basketball.

But everything changed when the company his father worked for went bankrupt. He was forced to find another job, and now works a boring desk job for another company, having to start from the bottom again. Since then, his father had become a bit soulless, having to work longer hours for less pay. It started to affect his mother as well, as his father rarely came home in a good mood. She seemed to become less happy, although she always plastered on a smile for her son.

On top of all of that, this all happened when Aomine had begun to realize his diminishing passion for basketball. That year was probably one of the lowest points in his life, and he had been trying to recover from it ever since.

He was grateful for his first glimmer of hope to occur. Maybe being defeated had humbled him, because since then he had actually spent some of his free time practicing again. It was a shame that the season was over for him, because he couldn't wait to play his next game again. For now, he supposed, he'd have to live vicariously through the four remaining teams in the Winter Cup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story will start to get more interesting next chapter, I think. I just want to establish the inner thoughts of Kagami and Aomine during canon events, as well as start to introduce elements of their personal life. Obviously, we don't know much about their home lives so this is where we start to see some deviation from the canon story. As the story progresses, it'll start running on full head-canon, heh.
> 
> I actually found myself writing this while having to scan through the manga, just to make sure I got the order of things right. It was actually kind of difficult! But it was nice to re-read over some parts. As you can see, the story is already surpassing what the anime has gotten to so yeah, again, if you don't read the manga, expect to be spoiled (although you probably already have been if you're reading this now).
> 
> Thanks for everyone who has showed interest so far! I really appreciate it. (: See you next time! :*


	3. Chapter 3

Kagami woke up the morning of the Kaijou match to a completely naked Alex sleeping beside him. After proceeding to yell at her to 'put her damn clothes on' for what seemed like the umpteenth time since he had known her, Kagami came to a grave realization – his shoes were broken. Done. Kaput. He picked up one of the shoes to see the sole of it hanging halfway off. How did he not catch something like this earlier?

In a panic, Kagami called up Riko, who of course yelled at him for being an 'idiot'. He really did think those shoes were going to last him a while, but he was practicing more than usual.

"Geeze, seriously, you two! You're the perfect match for something like this!" Riko grumbled over the line.

"What are you talking about?" Kagami questioned.

"Kuroko's shoes are broken too! I'm pretty sure he just went out to buy another pair, so why don't you go and meet up with him? Come to the stadium ASAP once you're done!" Riko left off with that and hung up.

Kagami huffed and scratched the back of his head, sending a text out to Kuroko to ask to meet up with him.

Kuroko and Kagami had visited several stores with no luck – Kagami couldn't find any decent shoes in his size. Their game wasn't until the afternoon, but still, this was going to be a problem.

"Why can't I find my size?" Kagami grumbled, glancing over to Kuroko who was holding his brand new shoes that they found in the first store they tried.

"It's because your feet are so unnecessarily big," Kuroko commented.

"What's unnecessary?" Kagami glared at his shorter friend.

Although they checked a couple more stores they still had no luck.

"Let me ask Momoi-san if she knows where to find any. She manages an entire basketball team, after all," Kuroko held up his phone and began to press a few buttons.

"Sure, whatever you think is best…" Kagami let out a sigh.

Kagami checked out one more store while they waited with no luck. It didn't take very long for them to both hear someone shouting Kuroko's name.

"Tetsu-kun!" Momoi ran up to Kuroko and tackled him, wrapping her arms around his thin frame.

"Sorry for calling you so suddenly," Kuroko patted lightly at her back as she gave him a near-death squeeze.

"It's fine! I was planning to go out today anyway so it was no problem at all!" Momoi smiled gleefully.

"Um, I'm glad you came to help us out, but why are you here too, Aomine?" Kagami's eye's narrowed at his rival who came walking up to where they were gathered.

"Shut up! That's my line, you bastard," Aomine returned the glare.

"Dai-chan has a ton of basketball shoes so he said he'd lend you a pair!" Momoi answered cheerfully.

"What the hell!? I never said that! Don't mess with me, Satsuki!" Aomine shouted, turning around to now direct his glare towards her.

"But you two wear the same size!" She added with a wink.

"How do you know that?" Aomine asked, baffled.

"Here!" Momoi ignored the question and handed a box out towards Kagami.

"Hey, don't take my Jordan's without my permission!" Aomine's shouting continued as Kagami took the box from Momoi.

"Dai-chan had a spare and these are the kind you like to use, right? Don't worry, Kagamin; I know all of this information because I've analyzed all of Seirin. I could probably tell you everyone's preferred shoe and size," Momoi smiled again.

 _'Woah, these really are the kind I use. And I really like the color…'_  Kagami looked down at the black and red Jordan's that were just his size.

"… Geeze, it can't be helped," Aomine huffed, knowing that his protests were going unanswered. He had no idea how Momoi got ahold of his shoes without him knowing either.

He lifted his eyes to look at Kagami; his eyes nearly sparkled as if he was a kid in a candy store looking at those shoes. But he could see a sign of resistance in Kagami's eyes – probably because he got such a great pair of shoes that fell into his lap so easily.

"I'll give them to you if you can beat me at 1-on-1," Aomine said, holding up the basketball he brought along.

"Huh!? I have to be in a match pretty soon!" Kagami shouted.

"Just a three-basket match, it won't take long," Aomine shrugged his jacket off of him and began walking onto the court.

"I told you-"

"Just do it. While we're at it, I'll give you a small lecture," Aomine said, walking past Kagami.

Kagami was a bit taken aback, Aomine sounded pretty serious. So he decided to go along with Aomine's whims, although he wasn't sure what he and Aomine would have to talk about that's so important.

He followed Aomine out onto the court, taking off his jacket as well.

"I'm only gonna say it once, so listen up, idiot," Aomine turned to look at Kagami.

"What'd you call me!?" Kagami shouted, glaring at Aomine

"Who cares? Just shut up and listen," Aomine glowered back, gripping at the ball in his hands.

It may have been because he saw Kagami as worthy competition, but he still wasn't sure why he'd so easily tell him precious information that'd only improve Kagami's playing. In fact, maybe it was because he  _wanted_  to see Kagami improve – he  _wanted_  Kagami to get better for the next time they played against each other in an official game. Aomine knew he was already slightly anticipating their next match against each other.

"I'm gonna tell you a little bit about the zone," Aomine continued, and Kagami seemed to quiet down at the mention of it and his attention was on Aomine. "Everyone has a different trigger for entering the zone. If you're in your ideal set of mind and are 100% focused, you can enter the zone."

Kagami nodded with interest, encouraging Aomine to continue.

"Just knowing your trigger won't get you into the zone, but it helps. And for you, your trigger is…" Aomine paused for a moment, "The will to fight for your friends."

Kagami's brows raised a bit, "Really?"

Aomine scoffed, "Of course, when you entered the zone during our game, the only thing on your mind was winning for your team, right? It wasn't all about you in that moment – it was for everyone on your team as a whole."

Kagami remained silent and thought for a moment, "You could tell all of that just by watching me?"

"W-Well, it was pretty obvious," Aomine stumbled over his words a bit and ran a hand through his hair. He wasn't 'watching' Kagami; he was just… really hard to take his eyes off of… Especially during a game they were playing against each other in! "Whatever, just keep that in mind, alright? You're going up against Kise today, so you're going to need all the help you can get." Aomine walked past him, dropping the ball against the asphalt. "Now hurry up so we can get this 1-on-1 started so I can cream you."

"Shut up! Don't talk so high and mighty right off the bat!" Kagami went back into defensive mode and trudged after Aomine.

Needless to say, it didn't take long for their game to end.

"I'm done, so let's go, Satsuki," Aomine said casually, walking up to Momoi and Kuroko who were talking on a bench.

"Huh? Wasn't that too fast?" Momoi asked with a surprised look on her face.

"I told you it wouldn't take long," Aomine huffed.

"How was it?" Kuroko asked.

"I destroyed him," Aomine said bluntly.

"Wait! One more time! I want those shoes and more importantly, I can't stand losing to you!" Kagami shouted from behind him.

Aomine turned around and narrowed his eyes at Kagami, "Don't you have to be in a match soon? Don't be ridiculous." He reached over and grabbed the shoebox off of the bench. "Here," he tossed it over to Kagami.

"What…?" Kagami made a stunned expression

"Take it. I don't need it anyway."

"Like I'll take it after losing! Take it back!" Kagami shouted, shoving the box back towards Aomine.

"Just take it, dumbass!" Aomine scolded and sighed. "You're going to need some shoes if you want to play today. And I told you – you're playing against Kise, right? I'm going to murder you if you put on a sloppy match just because you don't have the right shoes." Aomine turned to walk away, "I'll let this match be on hold."

Kagami paused, Momoi slightly smiled.

"Fine… My bad, I'll take it," Kagami said much more quietly and calmly.

Momoi and Aomine made to leave the court, but not before Kagami shouted once more.

"But it's just on hold, okay? Don't you forget it!"

"Just go, dammit!" Aomine yelled, turning back around with an agitated huff.

Momoi giggled next to him.

"What's so damn funny?" He asked with a grumpy expression.

"You two really are similar, almost scarily so, right down to your shoe sizes," she commented and let out another giggled.

"Tch, don't compare me to him…" He mumbled under his breath. He hated to admit it, but there were some parts of Kagami that reminded him of himself. Just a few…

* * *

Kagami and Kuroko made it to the coliseum just in time. Riko and the rest of the team seemed to be relieved that their predicament was easily solved as they made their way out onto the court.

They walked out to see that the Rakuzan vs. Shutoku match was at halftime and the game was tied. While makin their way to their side of the court, Seirin passed Rakuzan who were making their way back out onto their court to continue with the next half of the game.

Akashi was intimidating despite Kagami's height overshadowing his, but he tried keeping his cool as the team approached closer. But maybe he was a little too ambitious with him.

"Yo, you better not have forgotten me. You pulled some crazy shit back then," Kagami glared down at Akashi, remembering the incident during the beginning of the tournament when Akashi nearly stabbed Kagami in the eye with a damn pair of scissors. "Kise, and you too… I'll crush all of you." Kagami continued his menacing glare.

Akashi looked unmoved, yet his eyes narrowed slightly. "Of course I remember you, Kagami Taiga," Akashi said in a calm voice. "I acknowledge your ability, but let me give you a warning." Akashi walked up closer to Kagami, setting a hand on his shoulder. "The only ones who are allowed to look me in the eye are the ones who serve me." His hand gripped tighter on his shoulder and Kagami didn't move. "No one that opposes me is allowed to look down on me."

In that moment, Kagami felt all of the strength leave his body. His knees gave away and he ended up on the floor, barely able to keep himself sitting up.

"Learn your place," Akashi said in an intimidating tone and walked past Kagami still on the floor.

He walked over to Kuroko and briefly said something to him before continuing onto the court.

It took Kagami a moment to get himself back up, with a little help from Kuroko. Akashi definitely was not one to be underestimated. He was frightening in many respects. Kagami tightened his fists into a ball. He couldn't believe that he allowed Akashi to overpower him so easily, but at the same time it almost felt as if there was nothing he could have done about it.

Cooling off from their little run-in, the Seirin team decided to stay and watch the remainder of the Rakuzan vs. Shuutoku match.

But it wasn't a surprise to see Rakuzan break the tie when the second half started, securing their spot in the finals. Although they were defeated, Shuutoku never gave up. But Midorima had showed a side to himself that Kagami was surprised by – he actually made an effort to work together with his teammates. Midorima, besides Aomine, was probably one of the Miracles that were least likely to depend on his team. Yet he put his full trust in them during this game, especially in Takao. They definitely weren't a weak team, and they seemed to be holding up well before the second half started, but they just couldn't hold out to the former Teikou captain.

* * *

Aomine gave a sigh and a grumble as he walked through the coffee shop with Momoi beside him.

"Why the hell did you make me come out with you today? Besides to give my shoes away to that idiot…" He furrowed his brows and glared at Momoi who seemed to be incredibly unaffected by the menacing glare she was getting.

"If I recall, you were the one that ditched me even after specifically saying you would go shopping with me – so you owe me this!" She said with a 'hmph', finding a table to sit at and looking over the menu.

"You gave me that excuse the other day! You can't use it twice!" Aomine grumbled.

"This isn't the first time you've promised something and haven't held up your end of the bargain, so does it even matter?" Momoi kept her gaze down at the menu.

Aomine tsked but didn't respond. It was true… He kind of did stand her up the other day… and many other days besides that. So there really wasn't anything he could say as a retort.

After they had ordered their food, they sat in relative silence until Aomine spoke up.

"Do you believe in fate?"

Momoi made a bewildered face and raised her hand up to Aomine's forehead. "What are you saying!?"

"Idiot, I don't have a fever!" Aomine replied, moving his head away from her reach. He sighed, "I know it's kind of out of my character to say something like this, but do you really think it was a coincidence that all of the Miracles, along with Tetsu, just so happened to come together at the same time? I mean, it's just strange – we were all on the same team together, now we're enemies gathered at the same competition. If something like fate exists, the fact that he appeared before us…" Aomine's voice became quieter towards the end until it dropped off.

Momoi gave him a thoughtful look and seemed to be seriously thinking about what he just said.

"He has all the qualification as one of the Generation of Miracles," Aomine continued after his pause. "He could have  _been_  one of the Generation of Miracles, but he just wasn't able to be. And then he met with Tetsu… Like  _he_  was the one that was the true light to his shadow." Aomine made a serious face and his gaze was kept downward onto his plate.

Momoi gave a light sigh, "Stupid. What is with that serious face of yours?"

Aomine looked up to see Momoi sitting with her arms crossed.

"Don't act like you and Tetsu-kun weren't a good match, because you were. It's just that… well… you may have gotten a little lost along the way…" Momoi averted her eyes for a moment. "But I think the reason that Kagamin is such a good match for Tetsu-kun as well is because of how similar you two are – and Tetsu-kun can see that. Kagami is a lot like how you used to be and that's how they work so great together."

"Used to be…?" Aomine mumbled.

"Yes, 'used to be'. You can't deny that Kagamin has that pure joy about basketball that you just don't seem to have anymore."

Aomine felt a bit of pain in his chest upon hearing that. He knew it, he knew that Momoi knew it, he knew that many people knew it – but being called out on it wasn't something he expected.

"But," Momoi spoke up again, "I can see that there's still a part of you who hasn't given up yet. Especially after losing," She smiled softly and took a sip of her tea.

"And about fate – I believe in it. I believe all of the Miracles were brought together by fate. I believe that Kagamin and Tetsu-kun were fated to be on Seirin together," she paused and looked directly at Aomine, "And I believe that you and Kagamin were fated to meet as well."

Aomine was a bit taken aback by that, but smiled despite himself – Momoi definitely wasn't one to throw a word like 'fate' around so easily, so she must've been serious.

Momoi smiled in return and stood up from her seat, "Alright, let's go." She grabbed at Aomine's arm, attempting to pull him up.

"Where else are we going?" Aomine stood up with a look of confusion.

"Just come on!" Momoi said, continuing to pull him along with a smile on her face.

* * *

"Stop shoving, Satsuki!" Aomine growled as Momoi, with surprising strength, pushed him from behind into the coliseum. "I thought we weren't coming here today!"

"I changed my mind! Hurry before the game ends, I decided I have to see the end of this match with my own eyes!" Momoi continued pushing despite Aomine deciding that he was in too deep to leave by now.

"I said that hurts!" Aomine grumbled, coming to a halt once they reached an area that overlooked the court.

Aomine grunted and looked out onto the court to see a player substitution in progress – Kuroko and Kise were walking out onto the court and there was four minutes left of the last quarter and Seirin was ahead.

"It looks like we made it just in time, this is the climax," Aomine said in a serious tone.

Almost immediately into the match, Aomine saw it – Kise's perfect copy. It wasn't just any player he had copied – he had copied Aomine and Akashi at the same time. Aomine looked on in shock as he watched Kise pass Kagami with ease, dunking the ball into the net. He followed by blocking Kagami's shot with Murasakibara's block, and even copying Kuroko's pass.

 _'So he can finally copy us too, huh?'_  Aomine thought to himself. This was going to be a more intense game than he though. He found himself eager to see if Seirin could have a chance against the Kise right before them – Kagami and Kuroko in particular.

In the last four seconds of the game, it was as if time had literally slowed to a snail's pace. Kagami had control of the ball, it looked like he might make it, but Kise was right there with him. He went for a meteor jam – a move he had only done once while in the zone, but Kagami wasn't in the zone at that moment. He wasn't going to make, Aomine knew it. He tensed up as he looked on, Kise jumping up for a block. At the last moment, Kagami slammed the ball against the board of the basketball hoop, Kuroko right behind him, catching the rebound. In the last second, Kuroko performed his phantom shot and defeated Kaijou with a buzzer beater.

They had done it – Seirin had gone on to the finals against Rakuzan, and Aomine's adrenaline was rushing just from watching the game that had unfolded in front of him. With a deep breath and the loud cheering of the crowd in his ears, he turned around.

"Let's go, Satsuki," he said, already walking away from the court.

"Hey, wait up!" Momoi chased after him.

He placed a hand over his mouth as he ignored his friend's shouts for him to wait so she could catch up. His mind was racing with thoughts that had been occupying his mind all week.

 _'Damn, maybe Seirin really can beat Akashi,'_  he thought, and slightly smirked behind his hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for being patient with this chapter! I had a lot going on the past week. I'm actually really looking forward to getting past the canon stuff because its actually much harder to write when I have to continuously keep having to check the manga to make sure I got things right. But can you believe a lot of this dialogue is actual canon dialogue? Yeah! If I ever question as to why I started shipping these two its definitely some of the little moments they have, especially the shoes part. It's one of my favorites. ;~; One part I couldn't manage to fit in was during the Kaijou vs. Seirin match where Kagami comments on how nice the shoes he got from Aomine are. A really small moment, but its a moment that got mirrored on the effing cover of the 21st volume of the manga! I'm going to have to deviate from canon starting next chapter since the manga, as I write this, is in the middle of the Rakuzan vs. Seirin game. So I'll have to make up an ending. But then I can finally get into the meat of their relationship.
> 
> I'm ranting. As usual. Thanks so much for reading and the interest people have shown in this story so far!


	4. Chapter 4

_Two weeks later._

The basketball bounced on the court, creating a slight echo with each hit against the asphalt. Kagami heaved a huge sigh as he slowly made his way to retrieve the ball so he could shoot it through the hoop the same way he had for the past hour or so.

Winter Cup was over, and with it ending also came the end of the basketball season. Practices still happened, but less frequently. Now that it was winter break there was nothing for Kagami to do except to go out to the court by himself a couple hours a day to pass the time. It was only a few days until the new year and Kuroko was out of town with his parents to spend the holiday with the rest of his family outside of Tokyo. The rest of the team was doing much the same, and even Alex had returned to America, so he really didn't have anyone else to hang out with. His mother was flying in on the 31st to come visit him for a few days, his father was too busy with work so he wasn't able to make it.

The boredom and monotony of the winter break were a vast contrast to what had happened two weeks ago with the conclusion of the Winter Cup. Even into the 4th quarter, it really didn't look too well for Seirin when it came to winning. It wasn't just Akashi that they had to deal with, but it seemed like every single member of Rakuzan was on a level that no other team in the competition were on.

But Seirin had pulled off miracles before and they knew they could do it again. The game truly brought out the potential in everyone, and Kagami knew that winning the game was no longer just for him anymore. It was for the captain, Hyuuga, who without him, the team wouldn't be what it was. It was for Teppei, who wouldn't be able to play another high school basketball game ever again after the season ended. It was for the rest of his sempai who always believed in him. It was for his fellow first-years who gave all of their support. It was for Riko, who honestly couldn't be a better coach (well, maybe she could stop sneaking vitamins and supplements into their food). And most of all, it was for Kuroko, who if he hadn't been there for Kagami, none of this would have been possible. Kagami would've never imagined that someone like Kuroko was who he needed to bring out the very best in himself, and he really felt that it was true that his light shown brighter when Kuroko was his shadow.

It almost seemed surreal that they pulled off a victory against the seemingly unstoppable Rakuzan. For Kagami, it was like a blur and at the same time so crystal clear. It was hard to explain but it boggled his mind.

Kagami picked up the basketball up off the asphalt and spun it in his hands a few times. The high from that time still hadn't faded, but the days had gotten dull. Kagami just wanted to be done with the break so he could go back playing with his team again.

Dribbling the ball against the court, he slowly made his way back to half court. He didn't make much of an attempt to aim and shot the ball carelessly, the ball hitting the rim of the basket and bouncing off the side.

"Dammit…" he hissed under his breath, rubbing at his neck and taking a step to retrieve the ball.

"What the hell kind of shot was that?" Kagami turned his head towards the voice that sounded off the court.

"Aomine…" Kagami said with a surprised expression.

"I'm surprised a guy who throws like that could beat someone like Akashi. I guess anything really can happen," he scoffed and crossed his arms.

"Sh-shut up, I'm just distracted," Kagami retorted, furrowing his brow. "Why are you here anyway?"

"What, I can't come to this court or something?" Aomine responded.

Kagami grumbled and tossed the ball in his hands, "Sorry, I'm just in a bad mood I guess…" He said quietly.

Aomine hmphed and walked towards the other side of the fence and onto the court, "You come here often?" He asked.

"Um… Excuse me?" Kagami raised a brow and eyed Aomine.

"Shit, you know what a mean! I meant, do you always come to this court?" Aomine's ears burned slightly at the borderline pick-up-like line that he hadn't meant to say the way it ended up sounding.

"Yeah… I come here almost every day," Kagami rested the ball against his hip and turned around to face Aomine.

"Seriously? I come here all the time at this time and no one's ever here," Aomine responded.

Kagami gave a confused look at Aomine. He always came at this time too but had never run into Aomine before. He dug into his pocket for his phone and quickly checked it.

"Ah…" His mouth hung slightly open, "I've been here this long?" And then Kagami realized how dark it had gotten. He figured he must've been so lost in his thoughts that he had completely lost track of the time and it was now an hour later than he usually stayed.

"You really are an idiot if you can't even keep track of the time," Aomine let out a short laugh.

Kagami shot him a glare. "Whatever. I'm leaving now." Kagami stormed off towards the court entrance in a huff. He really didn't feel like dealing with Aomine's smarmy remarks at the moment and he had overstayed his time at the court anyway.

"Jeeze, calm down! I was just messing with you. Don't take everything so seriously," Aomine called after him.

Kagami ignored him and was off of the court and out of sight within seconds. Aomine tsked, running a hand through his hair. He wondered why Kagami was in such a bad mood, a few insults here and their never got him to run off in a huff before. Whatever, it was none of his business.

* * *

Kagami knew that he overreacted with Aomine the previous day, but he didn't really want to stick around to have Aomine poke fun at him when he was in a sour mood.

But then again, Aomine really had helped him out a bit after their match together. He gave him information about the zone and even gave him a new pair of shoes when he really needed them (even though Momoi probably had mostly to do with that). Maybe he wasn't that bad of a guy… Well, just maybe. Aomine really was a smartass, Kagami thought, and he had no room in calling him an 'idiot' when he had heard of Aomine's infamously poor grades from Kuroko. But the jerk did help him out in a time of need…

So that's why Kagami was going to the court later than usual. As he thought, someone else was on the court and it was none other than Aomine. Kagami slowly made his way closer to the court, watching Aomine effortlessly shoot the ball through the net without even trying.

Kagami cleared his throat a bit, catching Aomine's attention who turned his head to the side to see who had approached him.

"Oh, you," he said, bending over to pick up the ball that had rolled to his feet.

Kagami grunted and held up a box towards Aomine.

"Uh, what is this?" Aomine questioned, his eyes moving from the box to Kagami's face.

"Your shoes. You can have them back," Kagami said quietly.

Aomine stared at the box and furrowed his brow, giving an irritated huff. "I told you that you could keep those. Besides, its not like I want them back after you've used them."

"But I never beat you at one-on-one so there's no way I can keep them," Kagami insisted, pushing the box closer to Aomine.

"Don't be an idiot, I'm not going to take back something I already said you could have," Aomine pushed the box away from him.

"But its not like I bought them off of you or something. I don't want to be in debt to you so I'd rather give them back," Kagami persisted.

Aomine gave an annoyed sigh,  _'Isn't the fact that I let you just use them in the first place already put you in my debt, you idiot?'_  He thought to himself.

Aomine pondered a bit, scratching at his temple. "Didn't you say you wanted a rematch for them?" Aomine asked, holding the basketball up with one hand. "How about we have it right now?"

Kagami paused for a moment in thought. "Alright, then." He went to go set the shoes down before Aomine stopped him.

"You aren't going to play against me in those ratty shoes," his eyes pointed towards the shoes Kagami was currently wearing that seemed to have been put through hell and back. "If you're going to play against me put those Jordan's on." He turned his back and stood at the center of the court, waiting for Kagami to switch his shoes out.

Kagami made his way out onto the court to stand across from Aomine, readying himself for what was about to happen.

"First 'til five points?" Aomine asked, dribbling the ball a few times.

"Sounds good to me," Kagami responded, staring down Aomine with a serious expression.

Aomine smirked and slammed the ball one last time against the asphalt, "Don't get too confident, the game starts now."

And before Kagami knew it, Aomine was out of his sight and already making his way to the end of the court. Kagami turned quickly on his feet and darted after Aomine, catching up with him in no time, but not fast enough as Aomine effortlessly swerved out of Kagami's block and scored a basket with his formless shot.

"Dammit, that was cheap!" Kagami growled as Aomine ran to retrieve the ball.

"No it wasn't, you're just too slow," Aomine wore a smarmy grin.

Kagami grit his teeth and the furrow in his brow deepened.

"We'll see about that," he said under his breath.

But it ended up being a little too one-sided, because after about twenty minutes Aomine had made five basket while Kagami had none.

"Shit, another rematch! Lets go again!" Kagami huffed and wiped the sweat off of his brow.

"Tsk, how did you beat all of us with that sort of playing," Aomine spun the ball on his finger without sparing a glance towards Kagami's direction.

"I can beat you!" Kagami went to grab for the ball but Aomine swiftly moved it out of his reach.

"I'm done playing for today. Besides, I don't think you want to embarrass yourself any further," he gave a condescending laugh and began to walk away from Kagami.

"What do you mean you're done for today!?" Kagami yelled after him. "I still need to beat you for these shoes!"

"Jeeze, Kagami, drop the shoes thing!" Aomine said, picking up his sports bag up and throwing it over his shoulder. "Those shoes don't matter that much to me."

"But it matters to me!" Kagami was now standing next to Aomine with a serious expression on his face. "I don't like being in debt to people."

Aomine let out a long sigh and rubbed at his temple.  _'This guy is annoyingly persistent,'_  he thought to himself.

"Fine, how about this: Come to this court whenever you feel like it, you know when I'm here. I'll let you challenge me to a rematch once a day until you win, alright?"

Aomine made the suggestion just to get Kagami to lay off of him a bit, but honestly this idea didn't sound so bad. He had been wanting another rematch with Kagami since his loss at Winter Cup. And although he would prefer playing an official game, having a one-on-one game with him was the next best thing. He wouldn't mind doing this more often, but it wasn't like he was going to tell Kagami that.

"Fine, but next time I'm going to win," Kagami said with serious confidence. So confident that it was slightly amusing to Aomine who had to hold back a small chuckle.

"Alright then, it's a deal," Aomine turned his back, holding up his hand with a single wave as he walked off and away from the court.

Kagami lingered on the court for a moment, trying to fathom why Aomine seemed to still be so much better than him. Sure Seirin had barely beaten Touou, but they did it. Actually, they had barely beaten all of the Generation of Miracles, each of their wins only being a point difference. Not only that, it was the combined efforts of Kagami and his teammates. He had gone head-to-head with all of them, but he may have not had a chance if it weren't for the rest of his team.

Kagami tightened his hands into fists. People, had believed him to be on the same level as the Generation of Miracles - but was he really? He quickly shook his head of the thought. It didn't matter if he was better or worse, it just mattered that he did his best and his best helped Seirin win the Winter Cup. He had already defeated them all - so why was he still so hung up on trivial things? With enough effort he would be able to beat Aomine at one-on-one, he knew he could.

He turned and picked up the ball that he had brought to the court and set down earlier. He might as well a get a bit more practice in before the next match while he was there.

* * *

Kagami almost forgot the fact that his mother was coming in the next day, so it looked like he had to put the rematch on hold.

Picking up his mother from the airport, she gave him a kind smile and a tight hug.

"It's so good to see you again, Taiga!" She said happily.

Kagami had always had a pretty good relationship with his mother. Since his father was rarely at home, she was the one he spent the most time with. He got his hair color from her, as she had bright red hair that went past her shoulders and was always styled in loose curls. He didn't want to brag, but he always thought his mother was very pretty and she always looked younger than her age. People would often complement her good looks and he was kind of proud of it.

She chatted away excitedly on their way back to his apartment in the taxi. She told him all about how his father was moving up the ladder in the company and how much her English had improved since hiring a private tutor.

"Its nice to be back in Japan where everyone is speaking a language I understand much better. You know your father, he always insists to talk in English, even at home, just so he can work on his communication skills. Anything for the business," she shook her head jokingly and Kagami laughed. It was nice to have his mother back in Japan as a change of pace. He'd be lying if he said he didn't miss his parents at least a little bit sometimes.

They arrived at the apartment not much later, Kagami insisting he carry his mother's luggage up the stairs.

"Oh, its much cleaner than I expected!" His mother said as her eyes swept the room after opening the door.

"Did you really think this place would be trashed?" Kagami set the bags down at the doorway to take off his shoes.

"Well, your room was never the cleanest thing in the world, even back in America," his mom replied, walking towards the kitchen. "I bet your kitchen gets a lot of use," she turned to face her son and smiled.

"Yeah, I still like making my own meals. As a matter of fact, I have a dinner planned for today since its New Year's Eve," Kagami said.

"Ah, I can't wait! I can't believe my son cooks better than I can. If you were my daughter I'd probably have to be worried about you seducing men through their stomachs," she giggled.

"Quit it, mom," Kagami laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, I'll show you where your room will be."

Kagami grabbed his mother's luggage and carried it into the spare bedroom.

"Are you sure you don't want to use my room? It was originally supposed to be you and dad's room after all," Kagami asked. The apartment was pretty large for just himself as it was originally intended for all three of them to live in until his father's job came to where it was more beneficial for his parents to remain in America.

"Oh honey, it's fine! I told you I don't really mind, as long as I get to see you," she patted Kagami on the shoulder.

Kagami smiled. It really was nice to have some company during the lonely holidays. As the day went on, Kagami told his mom all about his year with basketball, all the friends he made on the team and his Winter Cup experience. The conversation went on into dinner and into the night to keep themselves awake for midnight.

"I'm so glad you're having a good time back in Japan, Taiga. You sound like you've made such good friends" she said with a yawn. She must've been tired after getting off of her flight, but she insisted in staying awake until the new year. "You know, I was worried about you coming back to Japan by yourself."

"Really?" Kagami questioned.

"Of course! I had my sixteen year old son moving far away from me to live on his own for the first time! I had no idea if you'd be alright. Not only that, I didn't know what kind of things you'd get yourself into. Just the thought of my teenage son having a place all to himself in the prime of his youth had me worried in more ways than one." She set a hand to her cheek and shook her head.

Kagami blushed slightly at what his mother was implying. "You know I wouldn't be doing any kind of bad stuff." He mumbled.

"Hmm, how would I know? You  _are_  at that age where girls are starting to get your attention," she said with a worried face.

"M-Mom!" Kagami's face was red now. "It's weird hearing you say stuff like that…"

"Oh, Taiga, I was a teenager once too, you know! I know how teenage boys work!" She shook her finger in her son's direction.

"Please don't tell me about those kinds of things," Kagami rubbed a hand down his face. "I promise I'm not bringing girls home, okay? I'm barely here anyway besides to eat and sleep!"

His mother crossed her arms, "I believe you, Taiga, but as a mother I'll always worry about my son." She paused to look in his direction, "That doesn't mean I'm not proud of you, though," she said with a smile. "I'll have to wish for you success when we visit the shrine in the morning," she continued. "I'm sure that you'll continue to do your best. I've never seen you passionate about anything as much as basketball. Don't worry about your father trying to get you to do the same work he does, you should do what you love." She patted Kagami's hand gently, giving it a quick squeeze.

"Thanks, mom," Kagami gave a meek smile.

* * *

Aomine arrived home after spending a couple hours at the court like he had begun to almost daily since the end of Winter Cup.

 _'Kagami didn't show up again,'_  he thought to himself.

It wasn't like he was waiting for Kagami to be there, but he expected to see him there the next day demanding for a rematch. It had already been a week and there was no sign of him at all.

"Welcome home, Daiki," his mother said in a quite voice as she walked to the entrance to greet him.  
"Hey," he kicked off his shoes and took off his jacket.

"You seem to be going out a lot more lately," she commented.

"Guess so," he shrugged. He noticed his father sitting on the couch, keeping to himself.

"Well, dinner is almost ready if you're hungry," she smiled slightly and walked back into the kitchen.

He wasn't feeling very hungry at the moment and decided to hold off on dinner for the moment. He walked past his father, without a word spoken between each other and opened the door to his room. He reached for his cellphone and noticed he had a new text message. It was from Kuroko:

"Momoi-san told me you were starting to practice again. I'm glad."

"Why does she have to go telling other people my business," Aomine grumbled under his breath. He typed out a short reply:

"I just want to make sure I beat you next time."

He pressed send. It didn't take more than a few minutes for a reply:

"I look forward to it then."

Aomine smirked slightly. He couldn't help but feel the same way, but decided to leave the conversation at that. It was still a bit exciting to feel that basketball was starting to be fun again. Aomine sat in thought over the events of the past month for a few moments, and wondered if this was the start of his life changing for the better.

His appetite returning to him, he sat up off of his bed and walked out of his room and into the kitchen.

"So, what's for dinner?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took a while to come out and apologize v_v I've been very busy and unfortunately I think this will persist until the end of my semester as its reaching the end and this is crunch time. Not only that, but a couple weeks ago my computer broke so I've had to write this chapter on a really old, tiny netbook. D: But thank you for being patient and I hope everyone can continue to be patient with me! I also hope this chapter isn't rushed sounding.
> 
> Anyway, I pretty much decided to go with the 'Seirin wins Winter Cup' route despite the canon not having reached that point yet. I think the series may go that way, but I secretly wish that Seirin would actually lose so the series would have a reason to continue ehe. Either way, I think Seirin winning will work well for this story.
> 
> So I hope you enjoyed this chapter despite the wait, thank you for all the support and the kind words! ^^ See you next chapter!


	5. Chapter 5

A new year, a new season.

Kagami looked out at the freshmen lined up on the basketball court. Only a few moments ago they were commanded to take their shirts off, a few looking slightly uncomfortable as Riko stared their bodies down and did that amazing thing she did. Honestly, Kagami didn't know how she could know everything about an athlete  _just_  by looking at them, but it was definitely a valuable tool.

Riko just hmed and nodded to herself as she looked at each new member, probably running countless calculations in her mind in only a matter of seconds.

"Alright!" She spoke up cheerfully after she had inspected the last freshman. "Now I want to see everyone in action; we'll split into to two groups and see how you fare against each other." She set her hands on her hips with a confident expression.

As Riko was assigning the teams, the door to the gym opened and a familiar and kind voice spoke up.

"Sorry I'm late, guys! I fell asleep in class and my teacher gave me a scolding," Kiyoshi scratched the back of his head with a meek grin.

"Che, I told you to go to sleep early last night, you moron!" Hyuuga scolded, crossing his arms and furrowing his brow.

"I know, I know! I was just kind of excited about being assistant coach so I had a hard time sleeping," Kiyoshi gave a light chuckle over his friend's grumpy face.

Due to his injuries that he suffered from his first year of high school and pushing his legs to their limit last year, Kiyoshi was officially out of commission for playing basketball for his third year. Although it was possible for him to recover eventually, his persistence to play during his second year resulted in his recovery time to lengthen. But it didn't matter as he got to play one more year with his teammates, and their combined efforts resulted in a victory at the Winter Cup. That was all that mattered to him, and now, he couldn't think of anything he'd rather do than help coach the new freshmen and his former teammates.

"You're so simple minded…" Hyuuga muttered under his breath, earning another chuckle from Kiyoshi.

Kagami couldn't help but let out a short, soft laugh as well. No matter how hostile Hyuuga acted towards Teppei there was no hiding the fact that he considered him one of his best friends. Heck, when they won the Winter Cup match Hyuuga made a huge spectacle of running up to Kiyoshi with tears in his eyes and smile on his face, tackling him into a bear hug.

The practice went along smoothly despite the surprising amount of freshmen that showed up. Since Seirin won the Winter Cup tournament it made sense that people caused quite a buzz about it as the school's name went down as a favorable contender if one wanted to play basketball.

There was about ten minutes left of practice and everything was wrapping up when the sound of the back doors of the gym opening up echoed through the gym and another familiar voice accompanied it.

"Kurokocchi!" The friendly voice echoed through the gym and nearly everyone turned their heads. A few of the freshmen began to whisper to each other and Riko made an audible clearing of her throat.

"K-Kise-kun," Kuroko stuttered slightly and immediately started walking over to where Kise was. He seemed to be wearing a hat and a large pair of glasses. Probably to disguise himself. But why was he here in the first place?

Kagami couldn't quite make out what Kuroko was saying, but Kise made the face of a child getting a scolding and seemed to be apologizing over and over. The two made their way outside of the gym. Probably to see why he suddenly showed up and not make any more of a scene, Kagami thought.

"That's strange, why is Kise from Kaijou here? Don't tell me he's still trying to get Kuroko to come to his school," Izuki commented.

"I dunno either," Kagami shrugged his shoulders and twirled the basketball in his hands.

He hadn't seen any of the Generation of Miracles since last season. Well, except Aomine…

Aomine… he had played one-on-one with him during the break. But since his mother came to visit he couldn't find the time to go back for a rematch, and before he knew it a new school year had started. Kagami wondered if Aomine would still be going to that court in the evening now that school had started up. Nah, probably not, he wasn't really the type to practice so why would he bother going to practice some more after his team's basketball practice? Not that Aomine even went to those.

But it wouldn't hurt to just walk by the court, it was on the way home from school and maybe Kagami could get some solo practice in that way. He wondered if he should go say goodbye to Kuroko before he left but he figured that his friend had his hands full with the blonde model.

* * *

As Kagami neared the court, he could hear the faint sound of a ball hitting concrete. He casually continued his walk until the court was in sight. There he was: Aomine Daiki, all alone on the basketball court, bouncing a ball on the concrete and looking up at the hoop. He seemed to be in deep thought about something has he didn't move except to dribble the ball in place. A few moments later, he lazily threw the ball up into the air as it effortlessly shot through the hoop. He dragged his feet over to retrieve the ball and Kagami walked over to the entrance of the gate and leaned against the fence.

"If you're so bored why don't you head home?" The red-head spoke up.

Aomine's head darted around and he furrowed his brows once he saw who had just interrupt his alone time. "I can be here all I want." He commented and threw into the net without even looking.

Kagami just hmphed and walked out onto the court as Aomine went to get the ball again. "Well if you aren't going to leave, how about that rematch?"

"Oh? I thought you had chickened out about that since you never showed your face around here since then," Aomine smirked and gripped the ball in his hands.

"I had family in town, alright!? I didn't have time to bother with you. What, were you waiting for me or something?" Kagami shot back an equally devious smirk.

"Like hell!" Aomine growled and thrust the ball towards Kagami who caught it just in the nick of time. "Just shut up and play…"

Kagami gave him a confident grin. He might've lost his previous one-on-ones with Aomine before, but not today. No, he'd show him, and he'd wipe that stupid smile off that narcissist's face.

Aomine turned and faced opposite of Kagami, readying his stance to start the game. Kagami dribbled the ball a few times before making his first move – he was ready.

But it didn't take long before Aomine proved he should never be underestimated. Every time Kagami moved, he was one step ahead. Every fake and side-step Kagami made was quickly overcome; it was like Aomine could read his mind.

Why was this so difficult? He had done it before. Maybe it was because he wasn't in the zone? Kagami concentrated with all his might but he just couldn't do it. He was having difficulty enough as it was trying to keep up with Aomine. Dammit – what was he doing wrong?

The game came to an end when Aomine made a slam dunk with his 5th and final basket, Kagami loosing with only 2 points. At least it wasn't a total defeat like last time, but still, he was aggravated.

"Shit…" Kagami hissed under his breath, panting heavily and wiping the sweat from his face with the back of his hand.

"Looks like I win again," Aomine said lazily, like it was the easiest match he had ever played.

"Tch, whatever, I'll be back," Kagami growled.

"Well, if you're going to be back, make sure not to bore me so much, yeah?"

Kagami just wanted to slap that snarky grin right off the bastard's face. What an asshole, he shouldn't even be bothering with him to begin with. But he couldn't be in debt with a person like him, no way. He was going to win those shoes fair and square.

Kagami stormed over to retrieve his school bag and slung it over his shoulder, "Whatever, don't forget who beat you during Winter Cup," he commented as he began to walk off the court.

"I'm starting to think that was a fluke!" Aomine shouted after him. Kagami didn't bother to turn around and just stuck up a middle finger at him.

Aomine couldn't help but chuckle to himself. It was surprisingly fun messing with Kagami – he was just too easy to stir up.

Now that he knew his excuse for not coming during the winter break he figured he wouldn't mind if Kagami continued to come and get his ass handed to him day after day. He hated to admit it, but playing against Kagami wasn't boring. Sure he was pretty confident he could consistently beat him, but Kagami actually tried – Kagami acted like an actual opponent. That's what intrigued him with the redhead to begin with.

Aomine gathered his things and headed off the court. The sun was setting and he was starving.

* * *

Kagami was still mumbling to himself about how much of a jerk Aomine was the next day at lunch. It didn't take very long for his light-blue-haired friend to notice.

"Kagami-kun, you've been quite grumpy all day. What's the matter?" Kuroko asked.

"Huh? Oh… nothing really…" He mumbled, taking a large bite out of his sandwich.

"Something must've happened," Kuroko persisted.

"Tch, it's just I ran in to Aomine yesterday and he's just as much of a jerk as always, that's all," Kagami scoffed.

"So, you two played against each other and he beat you?" Kuroko said bluntly.

"!" Kagami didn't know how Kuroko was so perceptive but he was. "I-It's just because I wasn't playing with my full strength."

"It's alright, Kagami-kun. You may have defeated him during the Winter Cup, but that was during an official match. I doubt that made him any weaker – in fact that might've made him stronger," Kuroko pushed at the rice in his bento box. "He was difficult to overtake in a match and a casual one-on-one is a different situation, so don't beat yourself over it. Aomine was our Ace amongst the best for a reason."

Kagami took in Kuroko's words and mulled them over a bit. Kuroko knew Aomine better than he did, so he probably wasn't spouting nonsense. Aomine wasn't just another basketball player – he was among the best of the best. But damn, that didn't mean he had to have such a shitty attitude!

"I know, I know. The way he acts just pisses me off…" Kagami grumbled and finished up his sandwich in one large bite.

"Aomine-kun is difficult to get along with, I can admit that," Kuroko gave a slight smile.

Kagami felt a lot better after hearing what Kuroko had to say, so by the end of the day and by the time he was getting ready to head to practice he was feeling better. Besides, he could go for a rematch later. He felt himself getting a little excited despite the fact that he would rather not deal with Aomine's attitude – if he could just tape the bastard's mouth shut he'd probably like him a little more.

Kagami closed the door to his locker in the locker room; he glanced over to see Kuroko sliding his practice shirt over his head and noticed something on the intersection of his neck and shoulder that he didn't notice earlier – probably because their uniforms cover up most of their necks.

"What's that on your neck? A bruise or something?" Kagami asked, pointing with his eyes.

Kuroko jumped slightly and his hand swiftly cupped the area of his neck, "It's a bug bite, I think… not too sure…" Kuroko adjusted his shirt slightly to cover it up.

"Huh…" Kagami shrugged his shoulders and dropped the subject. "Oh yeah, sorry I didn't walk home with you the other day. I figured you were busy with Kise so I didn't bother. What was he here for anyway? Is he still trying to get you to join Kaijou?"

"He has given up on that endeavor, fortunately. He just… wanted to come visit, I suppose," Kuroko rubbed at his neck, "I didn't expect him to just come into the gym like that though."

"Yeah, but that's Kise for you, I guess," Kagami laughed lightly.

By the time practice was over, Kuroko and Kagami made their regular walk back home, chatting along the way about the new freshmen. There were definitely a few with great potential but others were obviously newbies, just trying out the basketball club to see what the Seirin basketball team was all about.

"Hey, let's walk by the court today," Kagami brought up casually.

"Sure, do you want to get some extra practice in for a bit?" Kuroko replied.

"Um, maybe," Kagami craned his neck a little as they took the branching path that went towards the basketball court.

And as expected, Aomine was there again, all by himself on the court.

"Oh, Aomine-kun is here, did you know he would be?" Kuroko questioned.

"Ah, I had seen him here a few times but I wasn't too sure..." Kagami fibbed a bit.

The two friends walked towards the court, the gate opened with a clang and caught Aomine's attention.

"Oh, Tetsu," Aomine seemed mildly surprised to see his former teammate there. Kagami ground his teeth a bit over going completely ignored.

"Hello, Aomine-kun. I'm surprised to see you here," Kuroko commented.

Aomine shrugged, "I get bored so I come here sometimes."

Kagami dropped his bag on the ground and approached Aomine, "How about a game then if you're so bored?" He looked back at Kuroko, "If that's okay with you…"

"I'm fine just watching," Kuroko replied and sat down on the bench.

"I figured you'd come back to get pulverized again," Aomine chuckled and walked out to center court.

"Shut the hell up!" Kagami shouted, following behind him.

Kuroko just sat quietly and observed his former and current light seething with rage and combativeness in the mere presence of each other. If opposites attract, these two were the very definition of what happened when similarities got together – there was so much that reminded Kuroko of the other whenever he thought about it. Not only that, but their competitive nature got the best of them in many situations. But maybe the fact that they were both so competitive also complemented them, in a weird way.

Kuroko had seen many times Aomine's bored expression when playing basketball. It was almost painful to see – someone who used to love the sport so much had become so uncaring about it. But now as he watched Aomine and Kagami playing in front of him, he saw the flame in Aomine's eyes that he thought was once lost. Kagami always had that fire, but Aomine showed the expression on his face that Kuroko hadn't seen since his first year in middle school. It almost looked like Aomine was smiling.

He continued to watch on, at one point they were tied 2 – 2 but Aomine ended up gaining the upper-hand. Kagami's face showed nothing but frustration while Aomine looked pretty damn pleased with himself.

"One more time!" Kagami shouted, following after Aomine who went to pick up the ball after his winning shot.

"I told you I'd only play you once a day, idiot," Aomine responded.

Kagami growled in irritation and stomped off towards the bench Kuroko was sitting at. Kuroko had never really seen Kagami throw such a childish temper tantrum before.

"Let's go," Kagami grunted, picking up his bag and slinging it over his shoulder.

"Goodbye, Aomine-kun," Kuroko called out before chasing after Kagami. Aomine simply held his hand up in a wave.

Kagami stomped down the street in his brooding anger while Kuroko caught up with him.

"So, you two have these matches often?" He asked despite Kagami's 'don't even talk to me' face.

"This is only the third time, but I can't just let him win all the damn time! I have to beat him once to pay him back for these stupid shoes," Kagami huffed.

Kuroko raised an eyebrow, "Shoes? You mean the ones he let you have for Winter Cup?"

"Yeah! I can't be in his debt!" It was the excuse Kagami was using for this entire ordeal, but was that really the only reason? Were shoes and his pride  _that_  important?

"I see. It's the shoes…" Kuroko said quietly. "Are you sure it's not just because you enjoy playing against him?"

Kagami's head snapped in Kuroko's direction as he gave him a heated glare, "Hell no! Why would I like being around that asshole? I'm doing this because it's the principle of it all!"

"So you're fine with getting consistently beaten?" Kuroko said with no fear or shame.

"What the hell, Kuroko!? Whose side are you actually on?" Kagami shouted.

"I'm not on anyone's side – there are no sides to take. I'm just asking a genuine question."

Sometimes Kagami really wanted to smack some sense into his smaller friend. Kuroko and he were teammates now! He should always side with him on matters like this!

"Glad to know you have such faith in me," Kagami grumbled.

"I do have faith in you, Kagami-kun, but that doesn't mean I'm going to lie to you." Kagami glanced in Kuroko's direction. "If I didn't have faith in you, we wouldn't have won all those matches together. If I didn't have faith in you, I wouldn't have realized my own potential."

Kagami sighed and felt himself calming down a bit. Okay, maybe he was being a bit irrational, and yelling at Kuroko probably wasn't called for. Still, you expect your friend to tell you nice things, even if they may not necessarily mean it. But at the same time, he figured that's what made Kuroko kind of admirable, he cut the crap and told you straight up how he felt.

"I've seen you defeat Aomine-kun once before, so I believe you can do it again. But I also believe that it's not as simple as that. Like I said earlier today, he is one of the best. But I believe you are one of the best as well."

Kuroko always knew the best things to say. Damn him for being so level-headed all the time. Kagami knew he got fired up easily so he found himself more times than he'd like to admit being calmed down by Kuroko.

"I guess you're right," he grumbled. "I'm not giving up until I beat him, though. I'll go every damn day if I have to."

"I wish you all the luck then," Kuroko replied.

"Yeah, whatever. Let's go to Maji, I don't feel like cooking tonight."

"I could go for a vanilla shake."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a while since the last update. In that time, I've finished up my last semester of college - so now I'm free! It's intimidating but also exciting to see what life has in store for me in the next few years, who knows where I'll end up? So thanks for all the support of my stories and thank you for everyone being ever so patient.
> 
> Despite all of that, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I really wish I could've gotten this done by AoKaga day but I barely missed it. x(  
> Happy (late) AoKaga day!
> 
> And just remember - this is a slow-build so its going to take a while for the two of them to realize their feelings. Because you know, they're both idiots - they can't help it! But that doesn't mean their interactions won't be any less. I hope to get back to regular updates soon as well. ^^ Thanks sooo much for reading and all the kind words, see you next chapter!


	6. Chapter 6

Aomine took quiet steps through the living room. He had stayed out later than usual as he had lost track of time on the basketball court. After Kagami left, his mind was filled with thoughts that assaulted his brain as he mindless made shot after shot at the basketball net on the court. Before he knew it, the court was only illuminated by a few street lights.

The house was dimly lit. All the lights in the kitchen were off and only a single light remained on in the living room.  _'Mom must've kept it on for me,'_  he thought. His father wasn't sitting in his usual spot either; it looked like he hadn't waited up for him like he sometimes did to give him a lecture about staying out late on school nights.

Aomine threw his things carelessly on the bed before digging through his drawers for a change of clothes. He was exhausted but he sweat more than he thought he would that day so he decided to take a shower before falling asleep.

He was about to make his walk down the hall before he stopped in place – his dad was looming in the doorway of his room, it nearly gave Aomine a fright. Who knew the old man was this sneaky?

"Where were you until now?" His father asked in his gruff voice.

"I was out practicing, I've been doing it every day," Aomine said nonchalantly.

"You usually don't get home this late," his father crossed his arms and didn't budge from the doorway.

Aomine shrugged his shoulders, "I lost track of time, a lot was on my mind, I guess."

His father's eyes remained trained on him with a glare that was hard to read.

Aomine's dad was capable of kindness, he knew so. He remembered all the times when he was young and his father would laugh and play with him on fishing trips, or their big, annual crayfish hunts. He'd play basketball with him in the park and take him to get ice cream afterwards. He was the dad every kid wanted. He may not be that fun, easygoing dad anymore, but even back then, if his father got angry or serious about something it was enough to scare even a gang of yakuza. His father had a look to him that Aomine knew showed up on his own face occasionally, but probably not too the same, intense degree. It was horribly intimidating, and to this day, Aomine was still slightly scared of it…

… But luckily, that was not the face he was making at the moment. Aomine knew he'd be in for it if he was, and silently thanked whatever higher-being that it wasn't. No, it was more the face of neutrality… at least, in comparison to the scowl he was capable of. So it didn't necessarily mean he was very happy or angry with his son at the moment.

"Is that really what you've been doing lately? Last I heard, you were tired of basketball," he spoke in his low voice.

"I told you I'm starting to get into it again ever since the Winter Cup tournament ended," Aomine figured he should choose his words carefully.

His father let out a short, gruff, sigh, "Well next time you're going to stay out late like that, call us or something. You know how your mother is, always worrying over every little thing." His father lazily moved away from the doorframe. Aomine was about to walk out before his father turned back around. "You need to decide if this basketball is what's right for you. Don't go back and forth like this or you're just wasting your time."

And with that, his father headed back down the hallway and into his bedroom.

* * *

Kagami got up exceptionally early in order to get to the gym before morning practice. The sun wasn't even out yet when he walked up to the gym, wrapping the light jacket around him tightly in the cool, early morning weather. As he approached the building, he spotted another figure at the gym doors.

"Gosh, Kagami, you're so cruel making your sempai wait out in the cold, knowing that he has weak knees," Teppei yawned and attempted a pouting face at the same time.

"S-Sorry! I just really wanted to get into the gym before morning practice today and Riko told me there was no way she was getting up at this hour this early in the season…" Kagami awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

Teppei let out a light-hearted laugh, "Its fine! I was just kidding anyway, I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be. Hey – I'm assistant coach so I'll do all that I can to help!" He smiled as he unlocked the heavy metal doors to the gymnasium.

Teppei flicked the lights on at the entrance; it took them a moment for them to come on with a flick and a buzz. Kagami walked over to the folded bleachers to set down his things and take off his jacket. He jogged over to Teppei who was unlocking the door to the supply room and helped him roll out the ball bins. He picked up a ball from the top of one of the bins, bouncing it on the floor as it echoed through the quiet gymnasium.

Kagami trotted over to a net, dribbling the ball and making a shot. He continued making a few plays, imagining a fake player going up against him… well, really, it was just Aomine. Kagami tried his best to imagine Aomine in front of him, that condescending smile on his face. He imagined what Aomine would do if he was trying to block Kagami's shot, block ANYTHING that Kagami would try to do in order to get any closer to the net.

He could do all the imagining in the world, but it wasn't quite the same. After retrieving the ball from his last shot, he stood in place and pondered his next strategy.

"Need a partner?" Kagami's thoughts were snapped out of place when Teppei approached him.

"Uh, is it alright for you to play?" Kagami questioned.

Teppei laughed lightly, "I'm not some old man, you know. I might not be able to be on the basketball team anymore but I can still do some light exercises. You aren't going to go all-out on me like you would in a game, right?"

"I guess, not… Sorry about that," Kagami apologized.

Teppei shook his head, "I get it, though, so there's no need for you to apologize. You've seen me in pain before – plenty times. It only makes sense that you'd be catious."

Teppei walked closer to Kagami, holding his hands up in a way that signaled for Kagami to toss the ball. Kagami passed it with a dull thud as it hit Teppei's large hands. He spun it in his hands before bouncing it against the court floor.

"You know, thanks, Kagami," Teppei said. Kagami made a face of confusion. "Well, I know it really was the whole team who got us to the finals and won the cup, because without all of them we wouldn't have been able to do it." He paused for a moment, "But I can't help but think we wouldn't have even begun to have imagined winning if we didn't have you and Kuroko on our team." Teppei smiled warmly, "So, thank you for helping me realize my dream in high school. You know, before I had to retire officially," he chuckled.

"We wouldn't have been able to pull off nearly half the plays Kuroko and I made without the help from you and the others, though, so I think we're even." Kagami responded with a smirk.

Teppei let out another laugh, "I guess that settles it then," he dribbled the ball against the floor again. "So, who were you playing against in your mind? Let me guess… Aomine?"

"Eh? How could you tell?" Kagami was slightly surprised.

"Ah, so I was right! It was mostly because of how long you took to make your next play, like you were making all these complicated calculations in your head on how to pass the unpassable. It wasn't quite like you were going up against someone like Akashi or Murasakibara… it seemed like you were going up against someone a little more… feral?" Teppei paused for a moment and smirked, "It was also because you looked unbelievably pissed as you did all of that."

"Huh!? For real?" Kagami was slightly embarrassed. Aomine didn't even have to be there to get under his skin, apparently.

Teppei played off of Kagami's flustered state and teased him a bit before starting their mock one-on-one. Kagami then remembered how good Kiyoshi Teppei was at basketball, even on his injured knees. It was pretty refreshing to be up against a different opponent this time, but there was nothing quite like going up against Aomine…

Time flew and before the two knew it, it was time for the morning practice and other members of the team began walking in.

"Kagami-kun, you've already begun to start coming in early for practice?" Kuroko questioned as Kagami went over to his things to take a swig off of his water bottle.

Kagami shrugged, "I just got to thinking about our talk yesterday. And knowing that even Aomine can improve I can't just let my guard down just because of our win last year."

Kuroko nodded quietly, "Now that the Miracles all understand what it truly means to work as a team, I can only imagine how much stronger they have gotten."

"Damn right. Last year was no cake walk, and this year ain't gonna be any easier," Kagami set his water bottle down and rubbed his face with a towel. "So let's get to practicing, yeah?"

He held out his fist to his smaller friend. Kuroko smiled lightly and raised his fist to connect with Kagami's

* * *

Kagami probably wouldn't have said this about a year ago, but Kuroko was probably one of his best friends. It was strange that this small teammate of his that he didn't particularly like upon their first meeting now came to his house often and was a constant source of emotional support only someone close could provide. He and Himuro had eventually patched things up since their pre-Winter Cup situation, but Kagami had always considered Himuro and his relationship more like siblings.

Kagami thought of all the people on his team his friends, but Kuroko was… different. Yeah, it sounded cheesy and gross, but it was true. Kuroko truly understood him and they worked together well on and off the court. Never mind all of their silly arguments and the fact that Kuroko still surprises Kagami with his lack of presence, all friendships had their problems, right?

"Ahh… I gotta stop by the convenience store before we head to my place. I forgot something for the dinner I'm cooking tonight," Kagami slapped a hand against his side as he realized he never bought butter the other day.

"That's fine, I might get a couple things while we're there anyway," Kuroko replied.

Although Kagami had put so much effort into practice all day, he didn't have much energy left in him to go meet up with Aomine at the moment. Honestly, it would just be easier to somehow have a way to just tell Aomine when and when he didn't feel like playing a game against him. Well, that would require getting his phone number or something… like that was going to happen.

The two walked into the first convenience store they spotted. Kagami headed straight to the refrigerated section while Kuroko lingered near the snacks.

"What the heck is with all this salted butter…" Kagami murmured as he scanned the shelves.

Finally seeing a stick of unsalted, he grabbed it and went to turn around before almost knocking into another customer.

"Oh, sor-" His sentence cut off as he realized who was standing in front of him in all his slightly sweaty glory. "Aomine? What are you doing here?"

Aomine scowled, "Why is that always your first question when you see me? Can I not go anywhere you're at?"

"Whatever," Kagami grumbled.

"I'm just here to grab a bottle of water," Aomine held up said bottle, "I forgot to bring one with me today."

Oh, the court was near this convenience store, wasn't it? Kagami felt a bit silly now.

"Makes sense, I guess," Kagami shrugged. "Anyway, I gotta get going." He pushed his way past Aomine to make his way to the front register.

Aomine turned around slowly and walked after him and stood in line behind Kagami without a word. Aomine didn't want to ask but he was admittedly a little curious, that's why he hesitated until Kagami was almost next in line.

"So I guess you aren't coming to the court today?" Aomine asked in a rushed voice.

Kagami glanced over, "Um, not today. I have Kuroko coming over to my place."

"Huh? Really?" Aomine raised his eyebrows slightly.

"Yes, we stopped by here to get some things." Both of them turned their heads at the voice that came from behind Aomine.

"T-Tetsu… I didn't see you, how long were you there?" Aomine asked with a bit of surprise on his face.

"The whole time," Kuroko sighed slightly, "In fact, I was behind Kagami in line until you cut in front of me. But since it was Aomine-kun I didn't bother to say anything."

Aomine was slightly baffled, "Err, sorry about that…"

"It's fine," Kuroko simply said as Kagami seemed to have finished his purchase and grabbed his now bagged butter off the check-out counter.

"I'll wait outside," Kagami said to Kuroko.

Kagami let out a soft grumble as he crossed his arms and stood outside the door of the convenience store for his friend. Why did Aomine have to be there? He actually felt kind of bad for not going to the court that day, but it's not like it was something the two planned. Playing a game against Aomne was just something he was invited to do whenever the two so happened to be there at the same time, right? It still didn't make it any less awkward that Kagami knew Aomine might be headed there because he expected Kagami to be there when he got back.

But whatever, it's not like Aomine's feelings were any of Kagami's concern.

They store's doors opened with a ting and the man in question walked outside, bottle of water in hand.

"So you and Tetsu hang out a lot, huh?" Aomine asked, unscrewing the cap to his bottle.

"Err, yeah. We're teammates and we get along pretty well," Kagami replied plainly, glancing over at Aomine who took big gulps of his water.

Aomine took a breath after guzzling his water and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Looks like you two get along more than we ever did."

Kagami turned his head towards Aomine who just stared out onto the quiet street in front of them.

"We got along fine when we played basketball, but that was about it. When we hung out, it wasn't very often and we didn't have much to talk about with each other. It wasn't like we went to each other's houses and stuff either. We didn't really agree with each other on a lot of things, it was like we weren't on the same page most of the time – but when it came to basketball, all of that went out the window. Although, I guess not even basketball could save our friendship." Aomine gave a slightly cynical laugh.

"Kuroko never gave up on you and you know that," Kagami said with a stern face. Aomine's eyes shifted to look over at him. "You were the one that pushed him away."

Aomine gave a bitter smirk, "I know all of that. I'm not that stupid, you know." Aomine shoved a hand in his pocket and started walking away from the store entrance. He stopped in front of Kagami, "You beat me in that regard, I guess. Maybe Tetsu and I weren't meant to be teammates." He gave another unamused chuckle. "I kind of envy him," he said in a quieter voice before walking away.

Kagami kept his mouth closed as he watched Aomine's back get further and further away.

"Sorry that took so long, I had some issues with the cashier…" Kuroko's voice sounded next to Kagami.

"Huh? Oh… That's alright," Kagami scratched the back of his head.

"Were you talking with Aomine-kun?" Kuroko asked.

"Err, not really… just said a few things to each other," Kagami waved it off and took a few steps. "Let's hurry up and get to my apartment, yeah?"

"Alright," Kuroko nodded and followed behind Kagami.

Kagami was a bit taken aback by Aomine's words, and he was having a difficult time not showing it on his face. He never knew Aomine as one to show his emotions very much. The only time he had ever seen him ever show a crack in his façade was when Seirin beat Touou. Was Aomine really that broken up over his middle school days? Could he possibly be… lonely?

"Is something bothering you, Kagami-kun?" Kuroko's soft voice spoke up.

"N-No, just a little tired… and very hungry," he gave a half-hearted smirk to his friend.

Kagami's eyes lingered on Kuroko. He wondered what it was like when he and Aomine used to spend most of their time together, how Kuroko could even handle Aomine's attitude, even if it might've been a little different back then.

Maybe Aomine missed those days…

But then why would Kuroko be the one he was envious of? Shouldn't it be Kagami, himself, Aomine was envious of? Kagami didn't really want to dwell on it, but it bothered him a bit. Maybe Aomine just made a mistake…?

* * *

It was amusing to watch Kuroko eat his cooking, Kagami thought. Kuroko wasn't one to eat a lot, and he was actually quiet delicate as he ate. But whenever Kagami cooked for him, he could tell that Kuroko looked at the plate he would place in front of him in eager anticipation. It was very subtle, but the way his eyes sparkled at the food was nearly as voracious as whenever Kagami offered to buy him a vanilla shake on the rare occasion.

Afterwards, Kuroko would sit contently on Kagami's couch and watch whatever the TV was turned onto, letting his food digest. If it was early enough, he'd spend about half an hour there and then thank Kagami for the meal and claim that he'd have to head back home before it got too late. But if they ate dinner at a later time Kagami would often offer Kuroko to stay the night. He had that nice spare bedroom, and when Alex wasn't there it was never a problem having a guest over.

Kagami felt like he had to wind down a bit and decided to take a shower right after dinner. He didn't really feel like taking a shower after the evening practice, so it was nice to wash off all the day's dirt off of his body.

When Kagami got out of the shower, he expected to see Kuroko at his usual spot on the couch, but he was nowhere to be seen. Kagami quietly 'hmed' to himself. Rubbing a towel through his hair, he walked to the entrance of the apartment – Kuroko's shoes were still sitting by the door, so he must still be there. Maybe he went to sleep already? He peeked into the spare bedroom – no one to be seen.

Kagami was confused and checked his bedroom and once again, no Kuroko. Was his vanishing act in overdrive or something? He scratched his head for a moment before realizing he didn't check one last place.

He walked back out to his living room and glanced out the sliding door of the veranda – the mystery was solved. Kuroko looked up at the night sky with his hand held up to his ear. Was he talking on the phone? It only took a moment and Kagami saw the cute, husky phone charm hanging over Kuroko's hand.

Kagami guessed that maybe Kuroko was calling his parents to let them know he wouldn't be home for the night. Kagami went to leave Kuroko be until he noticed something a little peculiar that caught his attention.

Kuroko turned slightly to the side and Kagami saw it – a smile. Kuroko smiled, Kagami saw it occasionally, but it wasn't something he did very often. Even then, Kagami had never quite seen Kuroko smiling like he was at that moment. It looked like a very warm smile, his facial features seemed very soft, even in the dim light that shown on him from inside the house. His cheeks were also ever so slightly dusted with a tinge of pink.

Kagami wrinkled his brows a bit. Was he really talking with his parents or someone else? Before Kagami could linger on that question, Kuroko had turned fully around to face towards the inside of the house. Kagami panicked a bit and shuffled in place to make it seem like he wasn't just staring at Kuroko the entire time. Kuroko spotted him, Kagami gave him a nervous wave and left the room and headed towards the kitchen.

Kagami fiddled in the kitchen making his lunch for the next day. Luckily most of the food was already made yesterday so he didn't have to do much. After spending a few minutes making his lunch, he heard the door to the veranda open and shut and Kuroko's footsteps approaching the kitchen.

"Sorry, I was on the phone, did you need something?" Kuroko asked.

"Oh, no, I was just wondering where you went," Kagami replied. "So, were you calling your parents?"

"No, just a friend," Kuroko said quietly and looked off to the side. "I'm going to get ready for bed, though. Thank you for letting me stay the night."

"It's no problem," Kagami smirked slightly.

Kuroko gave a quick 'good night' and walked quietly out of the kitchen.

 _'A friend, huh?'_  Kagami thought to himself. He wondered if he had a friend that made him smile like that. Well, if he was going to be honest with himself, he didn't have very many – just Himuro and his teammates. Had Kuroko ever made him smile like that? …No, probably not. Maybe it was someone Kuroko had known for a long time, even longer than that Ogiwara guy he told him about a while ago. Whoever it was, it must've been someone special.

 _'I'd never make a goofy face like that anyway. I kinda wish I had a camera, maybe I could've blackmailed him or something,'_  Kagami chuckled at the thought of it.

* * *

Thank god it was Friday. Classes seemed longer than usual, more boring than usual, more exhausting than usual. Kagami was elated when the bell rang and he could just shake himself awake and let off some steam during practice. The first years were starting to look promising, although it wasn't really decided how many or if any would be on the first string. There were definitely some strong competitors for second string, though. Most of them were finally used to Kagami's intimidating presence, probably thanks to the fact that they warmed up to Kuroko easily.

After practice was over, Kagami and Kuroko walked out the gymnasium together as they normally did.

"I think I'm gonna stop by the court today," Kagami said as they stepped out onto the sidewalk.

"Going to meet up with Aomine-kun?"

"We're not meeting up… it's just, if he's there I guess I'll play a game against him," Kagami shrugged. He actually was anticipating playing against Aomine again, especially after his surprising behavior the previous day. Maybe he'd tell Kagami a little bit more about himself… Wait, Kagami didn't really care about knowing more about Aomine… It was probably just because it had to do with Kuroko. That was probably it.

"I see. Well, I do have a lot of homework that I need to get done, so if you don't mind I won't be accompanying you today," Kuroko said.

"Oh, that's fine if you have stuff to do," Kagami nodded.

"Good luck."

Kuroko waved goodbye, Kagami doing likewise, as they both went their separate ways.

Kagami wasn't far from the court at all, and within a matter of minutes he saw the familiar sight of the court with a lone figure playing by himself, except there seemed to be someone else sitting off to the side – a shock of pink that stood out against its surroundings.

 _'Damn, maybe it's good that Kuroko didn't tag along today,'_  Kagami thought to himself as he walked through the gate onto the court.

"Did you get lonely yesterday and have to bring Momoi along with you today?" Kagami managed to get the first jab in of their probably many jabs they'd be throwing at each other that day.

Aomine turned around slowly with a slight scowl, "I didn't ask her to follow me. She just nagged me to let her come along."

"Excuse me, both of you! I'm right here, you know!" Momoi puffed out her cheeks in slight agitation.

"Sorry, Momoi, I just felt bad that you always have to deal with this guy," Kagami said with a smirk.

"I'm the one you should feel sorry for," Aomine spoke up. Momoi threw the notebook that she was holding straight for Aomine's head. "Oww, Satsuki! See? She's crazy!"

"Pretty sure you deserved that…" Kagami paled.

"Are you seriously taking her side?!" Aomine shouted angrily.

"Of course he is! Kagamin isn't as much of a jerk as you are!" Momoi stormed over to grab her notebook off the ground.

Kagami could barely hold back his laughter over the scene playing out in front of him. Aomine rubbing his head over and over as if Momoi had threw a brick at him, spewing nonsense arguments at her as she shot them right back at him.

"Ahaha..!" Kagami covered his mouth as soon as soon he realized he actually let out a reasonably loud laugh.

The arguing duo quieted and looked over in Kagami's direction. Kagami kept his mouth covered as his eye's darted from Momoi to Aomine.

Kagami could've sworn that Aomine's face turned slightly pink.

"What're you here for anyway," Aomine quickly went back to his nonchalant attitude.

Momoi 'hmphed' and stuck out her tongue at Aomine before taking her seat back at the court bench.

"Why else would I be here? I want to play basketball." Kagami set his things down and walked out to the center of the court.

"Let's get this over with then," Aomine turned and held up the basketball with one hand before dropping it to the ground.

Kagami was a little more amused than annoyed by Aomine's behavior now. Combined with last night's peek into his weaker side and today's silly argument with Momoi, he was a bit less intimidating at the moment. Maybe Aomine Daiki was human after all.

And maybe if Kagami lost this game against Aomine today, he won't be as worked up about it as usual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are still going slowly for the two of them but I think they're still making progress... somewhat!? I really wanted to display Kagami and Kuroko's friendship in this fic too, because it is quite a beautiful friendship indeed. So be prepared for even more bromance between the two. But next chapter will probably have more of Aomine's point of view since I don't think we've seen enough of it yet outside of his home life.
> 
> I hope you liked the chapter. Hopefully the next one will be out even sooner. And as always - thank you so much for the support! See you next time!


	7. Chapter 7

Although he hated to admit it, Kagami was actually… kind of enjoying going to the court by his house after practice almost every day. He and Aomine never did much else except play one game together and go their separate ways. Aomine often remained on the court after Kagami left. They didn't talk much except to throw a few insults here and there. Occasionally Momoi would be there 'keeping an eye on Dai-chan' for some reason or another. Even if there wasn't much said between the two, Kagami really did look forward to these stupid games despite their heated rivalry.

In fact, he came to realize that he had almost completely forgotten why they had even started this routine. Kagami actually had to think for a moment to remember why they even began this. The shoes that started this whole thing had already gotten more than enough ware in them since Kagami always wore them while he played. It had been almost half a year since he'd gotten them and he was still trying to pay back Aomine? Was that really why he continued to go to the court, day after day, losing one game after another to his rival? Was it even still about the shoes anymore? He wondered if even Aomine remembered that this was what this whole charade was all about too. Despite the fact that they always badmouthed each other, Aomine never complained about Kagami being there or asked him to stop coming. Maybe it had just become routine for both of them.

* * *

Aomine's attitude change towards basketball shocked his teammates more than he thought it would. Since Imayoshi was gone, Wakamatsu was the captain now, so Aomine never really heard the end of it whenever he came in late or missed practice entirely. Honestly, it was much more annoying than Imayoshi ever was. Sure Imayoshi was pretty intimidating, but Aomine would take that any day over Wakamatsu's almost daily temper tantrums. They were getting even worse now that the Interhighs were fast approaching.

"Aomine! You've been showing up late these past few days, if you do that one more time I'm going to triple your drills!" And Wakamatsu's yelling had begun.

"Whatever," Aomine shrugged and walked over to join the rest of the team in mid-practice.

"Hey! I'm your captain-!"

"Calm down, Wakamatsu, let him pass for today," Coach Harasawa said beside the angry senior.

"Tsk," Wakamatsu clicked his tongue. "He's  _always_  getting a pass."

"Well, that's how it goes when your the ace," the coach said simply as Wakamatsu fumed. "Although, you have to admit, he's been much more cooperative lately. Loosing that match must've humbled him."

"Yeah right, like anything would humble  _him_ ," Wakamatsu muttered under his breath.

Aomine could never admit to his teammates that he felt a little excited about the upcoming season. It would be another chance to prove himself - another chance to go up against Seirin. Even though he'd been playing several times a week with Kagami, he really shined when he was on an official court surrounded by his teammates.

' _Look at me fantasizing, tsk,'_  Aomine said to himself as he easily caught a pass from Sakurai and shot the ball into the net.

Kagami had definitely found a way to get under Aomine's skin whether he liked it or not. Just the other day, he blabbered on about his relationship with Kuroko in middle school without giving it a second thought that he just got really personal with his rival. Then he even let himself get caught arguing with Momoi and the bastard laughed - actually laughed! Before Aomine had realized it, his red headed rival had begun to seep his way into his life. Hell, they saw each other almost every day, and today was no exception - they would probably meet up on the court after school like they usually did.

Wakamatsu began yelling something at the freshman and Aomine just rolled his eyes. Maybe he'd skip out on practice tomorrow just so he didn't have to put up with that loudmouth for at least one day.

* * *

He'd probably get an earful from Momoi, but he'd deal with it when the time came. Instead of going to practice, Aomine opted to go out to the public court. Practice was just boring - he wanted to actually play basketball, not do a hundred drills over and over. Luckily, Aomine overheard the coach talking about a possible practice match with Kaijou. Although he'd probably have to put up with Kise's blabbering, Aomine was glad that finally he'd be doing something different. It seemed like the only thing to look forward to anymore were these stupid one-on-ones with Kagami.

"Well, I'm not looking forward to it. It's just... a lot less boring than practice," Aomine mumbled to himself as he spun the ball on his hand.

Aomine was grateful that there were rarely people who came to this court, but playing by himself got a little dull after a while... Okay, he was waiting - he couldn't deny it. He was there anyway, so might as well... It wasn't like he specifically went there to wait for Kagami - he just wanted to get away from Wakamatsu for at least one day. Besides, he was kind of used to this routine by now.

"Aomine-kun~!" He turned his head slowly in the direction his name came from.

"Oh, hey," He slowly made his way over to the fence where one of his classmates, Maya, was waving over to him. Her friends giggled as he approached and walked off to leave the two alone.

"What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be at practice?" She smiled.

"Didn't feel like going," Aomine shrugged.

"Ohh, that's kind of naughty, don't you think?" She giggled and bounced on her heels a bit.

"Yeah... Wouldn't be the first time I've done it though," Aomine's eye gravitated towards her chest - her breasts bounced slightly every time she raised her heels.

Maya definitely had a nice set of tits and she knew it, as she always seemed to leave the top few buttons undone on her uniform despite it being against the school code. Aomine was always kind of thankful to her in that regard.

"Hmm, maybe next time you skip you should tell me and we could skip together," She leaned in closer to the fence with a sly smile.

"...I'll think about it," Aomine lifted his gaze.

"Huhhh? Just think?" Maya pouted slightly. "How about we do something today, hmm?" She asked with a pleading look.

"Umm..." Aomine scratched the back of his head, "Today might not be so good..."

Maya stuck her bottom lip out slightly and crossed her arms "I get the picture..." She sighed slightly and backed away from the fence. "I won't bother you anymore..."

"Next time maybe, alright? I just got something to do today," Aomine shouted to Maya who seemed to be walking away.

She twirled around, "I'll remember that!" She said with a smile and a wink and continued walking off.

Aomine sighed and languidly walked back out to center court. He knew Maya liked him, it was obvious and she  _made_  it obvious. He didn't really like it when girls were so easy or aggressive, but last year he probably would've said 'screw it' and went along with Maya at the drop of a hat. Instead, he apparently would wait at this stupid basketball court just so he could play a game against a guy who got on his nerves.

"Obviously my priorities are fucked," Aomine grumbled out loud to himself.

After deciding to go the the convenience store to get a bottle of water, it didn't take long for the sound of the chain-link fence creaking open and shutting with a clang.

"Oh, Bakagami, you came," Aomine said with a snarky grin.

"Shut up!" Kagami shouted. As usual. "I'm not going to stop coming until I beat you."

"Well, I'm not sure I can even live that long," Aomine gave a cynical laugh while Kagami huffed and puffed up to him. Sarcastic remarks just came so naturally to him whenever Kagami was around.

"Let's just start already!" Kagami growled.

Of course the heat was on right away as usual. Since they started playing these one-on-ones, Aomine realized that Kagami was starting to get more attuned to his play style. He couldn't fake-out Kagami every single time and he'd even seem like he knew what Aomine was going to do next on occasion. It was kind of exciting. But in the end, Aomine knew he could get the upper hand.

They were at 3 - 3. This kind of situation had started to become a little more common lately - Kagami was getting better, but so was Aomine. Aomine made a fake before turning quickly and making a formless shot, the ball falling cleanly into the net.

The sound of clapping was heard and both of them stopped in the middle of their game to look towards the source.

"That was awesome!" A young boy said, his friend next to him hopped up and down in excitement.

"Uh, thanks...?" Aomine wiped a bit of sweat off his face and settled his hands on his hips.

"You're Aomine Daiki of Touou and Kagami Taiga of Seirin right!? So cool! I didn't know you two were friends!" The kid jumped up slightly as he held onto the chain link fence.

"Frie-!?"

"How'd you know our names?" Kagami interrupted Aomine with a baffled look.

"Seirin won the Winter Cup, duh! You guys were all over the local sports magazines! And Aomine Daiki has been in 'em since he was in Teikou!" The kid said matter-of-factly while his friend nodded in agreement.

"O-Oh," Kagami blushed and smiled a bit, scratching the back of his head. "Ow!" Kagami received a blow from Aomine's elbow to his side. "What the...!" He grumbled.

"It's so cool that you two hang out together and play and stuff!"

"Hey, kid, we aren't friends, alright?" Aomine crossed his arms and glowered.

The boy's face fell a bit. "Oh... you aren't? But you too looked like you were having fun, so I just assumed..."

"Well you were wrong," Aomine huffed.

The boy frowned.

Kagami shot Aomine a glare, Aomine just shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes.

"Th-That's right! We aren't friends!" Kagami shouted and slung an arm over Aomine's shoulder. "We're BEST friends!"

"HUH!? Ow!" Aomine nearly shouted in protest until he received a kick in the shin.

The boy's eyes brightened up again. "Really!? The two coolest players in Tokyo are friends! So cool!" The boy smiled and looked to his friend next to him "Maybe one day we'll be like them." His friend smiled as well and nodded again.

"What the hell are you doing?" Aomine hissed in a quiet voice.

"Just go along with it, idiot. It's making them happy," Kagami whispered back. "Besides, its not like I like pretending  _you're_  my best friend"

"Asshole."

"Prick."

"C-Can we see you two play some more?" The boy spoke up, his face beaming with enthusiasm.

"Sure, you caught me in the middle of kicking this guy's ass anyway," Aomine picked up the ball with a small chuckle.

"You were not! The game isn't over yet!" Kagami glared and got into position.

Aomine hmphed and made his move right away, but Kagami didn't miss a beat and blocked Aomine's path. The two boys watched eagerly as Aomine and Kagami moved swiftly on the court - it was as if you'd totally miss them if you so much as blinked.

Kagami got a hold of the ball and jumped to dunk it into the net. Try as much as he might, Aomine couldn't beat that jump of Kagami's.

"Yes!" Kagami pumped his fist after he landed to the ground.

"Tch," Aomine retrieved the ball with a scowl on his face. The two boys were cheering from the other side of the fence.

Aomine bounced the ball a couple times against the asphalt and was gone in a flash. Kagami's eye widened when he realized that Aomine had left his line of vision and was already on his way to the net. Kagami gritted his teeth and darted after Aomine - how did he let himself lose track of him? But it was too late as Aomine shot the ball easily into the net and scored his 5th point.

"Hmph," Aomine turned and smirked at Kagami who was behind him, breathing heavily.

"That was cheap," Kagami mumbled and ran a hand through his damp hair.

"It was not. Just because you couldn't keep up with me doesn't mean my play was cheap," Aomine shot back.

Kagami let out a short sigh, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Aomine's eyes widened a bit. Did Kagami just... agree with him? Not only that, he was being agreeable over the way Aomine criticized his playing? No way Kagami Taiga just did that...

"That was awesome!" The boys shouted.

"Aomine was like 'wham!' and Kagami was like 'ka-pow!'" The talkative boy mimicked some basketball moves while his friend did the same.

Kagami let out a laugh as he watched the two boys.

"You're in an oddly good mood for having just lost..." Aomine strode up beside Kagami.

"Can't I be in a good mood once in a while?" Kagami said defensively. "Besides, believe it or not, I always have fun when I play basketball. Unlike some people..."

Kagami bent over and picked the ball up off the ground.

Aomine's brows furrowed, "Who're you to say whether I'm having fun or not..."

"Did you?" Kagami turned and gave a sly smirk.

Aomine was taken aback slightly, "Like I would have fun playing against you!" Aomine yelled.

Kagami snickered and threw an arm around Aomine's neck. "What are you saying? You don't like hanging around your best friend?"

Oh, that's what he was doing. Kagami was mocking him - and enjoying it. This son of a...

"Ah, right, right - we always have fun, don't we, Kagami? How could I have forgotten." Aomine wasn't going to let Kagami get away with this silly little game of his. "Since I beat you that means you're treating me to Maji today, right? Cuz you're such a good friend." Aomine gave him a firm pat on the back.

Kagami's eyebrow twitched. "Um, I remember that our agreement was that the winner has to treat the loser - sort of like a pity thing."

"No, no, you got it all wrong,  _friend_."

"Aww, we've gotta go. My mom will get mad if I'm not home soon," the kid spoke up and the two rivals were snapped out of their intense pretending. "Bye! Thanks for letting us watch!" The boy and his friend waved before trotting off.

Kagami waved with a smile and moved his arm from around Aomine's shoulder as soon as the kids were out of sight.

"Like I'd ever buy food for you," Kagami said, walking over to the bench to grab his things.

"I still think you owe me a burger since I agreed to play along with your stupid game," Aomine responded.

"Yeah, and you failed at it - horribly. So hell no."

Kagami slammed the gate shut behind him.

* * *

Aomine threw the basketball against the fence and clicked his tongue. Again, he'd been at this court for nearly two hours and Kagami was nowhere to be seen. It had been like this all week. Kagami may have not shown up a couple times in the past, Aomine himself had done the same, but never had Kagami missed four days straight. Well, not since winter break. Aomine even pretended to be his 'friend' last time they met up, and now he wasn't even coming at all? Was Kagami done with trying to get 'payback' for those dumb shoes that Aomine never even cared about in the first place? Did he just give up since he kept losing? No, Kagami wasn't the kind of person to do that.

Then why? Why was Aomine yet again going home without having met up with Kagami for their regular one-on-one? And most importantly - why did it piss off Aomine so much? The fact that Kagami had affected his mood this much was enough to piss him off alone - so he was double pissed off!

Aomine slammed his bag on the floor in a rage and plopped himself down at his desk. Stupid Kagami should've told him he wasn't coming anymore.

"Shit, what am I thinking..." Aomine mumbled out loud to himself.

Kagami didn't have any obligations to come to the court, so of course it wasn't necessary for him to even show up let alone let Aomine know when and when he won't be there.

Just as Aomine was thinking about browsing a few of his regular sites or maybe look for some porn to distract him, the sound of his phone going off came from his bag. He got up and reached in, grabbing the phone and flipping it open to see a new text.

"Che..." Aomine felt a little disappointed when he saw it was a text from Maya. He wasn't sure who exactly he was expecting it to be instead, though.

'Hey, Aomine-kun! I'm just wondering if you're free tonight~?'

Aomine rolled his eyes slightly and started typing.

'Sorry, got hw to finish.'

He pressed send and let out a sigh. Since when did he turn down a girl twice?

It didn't take her long to send a reply.

'Like you ever do your hw! :( Its fine if you don't want to hang...'

'I'm failing this class. Satsuki is making me. Next time?'

'Okayyyy fine. (:'

Aomine tossed his phone towards the bed and slumped over on his desk, resting the side of his head on the cold surface. Maybe he actually should go out and do something with her. All he'd have to say is that he changed his mind and she'd totally buy it. But Aomine wasn't in the mood... He wasn't even in the mood to bother with looking for porn or even some pictures from Mai-chan's newest photoshoot.

"What the hell..." Aomine grumbled, getting up out of his chair and flopping face-first onto his bed. He turned his face to the side and grabbed for his phone. He must've spent what seemed like five minutes, blanking out while his inattentive gaze settled on the phone he was flipping open and shut.

With a final flip open, he pushed his contacts, scrolled down to Kuroko's name and stopped. He let out a deep sigh and began typing out a message.

'Hey, Tetsu, what's up?'

He waited a few minutes and a reply came.

'I just got out of the shower and I'm getting ready to start on homework. Its rare for you to text me first, is there something you need?'

Aomine scratched his head as he tried to think of what to say.

'Just wondering if you knew who your 1st opponent is at interhigh yet.'

An obvious lie. Aomine knew the schedules wouldn't be available until Monday.

'Not yet. We will know by Monday. We've already started extra practice in preparation, though.'

Aomine perked up a bit.

"So have we, but I don't stay the whole time. So... you been staying at practice late?'

Aomine hoped that question wasn't too obvious.

'Yes, Riko-san has us staying extra hours after school, so its been pretty exhausting for all of us.'

Aomine read the message over and suddenly felt kind of stupid. Of course it was something like this. Interhighs were only two weeks away. Of course Kagami would have to be spending more time practicing with his team (like Aomine should be doing). Aomine felt a rush of embarrassment over how he reacted. Before he could think of a reply to send back, his phone went off again.

'Did Kagami-kun not tell you?'

"...!" Aomine froze. Kuroko didn't figure him out; did he?

'I don't really care about him. Was just curious what you were up to.'

'Oh, OK.'

Dammit! Kuroko didn't believe that at all, did he?

'Well, I have to get started on my homework. I'll let Kagami-kun know you asked about him.'

'DON'T YOU DARE, TETSU!'

Kuroko never texted back and Aomine felt like yelling into his pillow.

* * *

"How have you been, Aominecchi?" Kise cheerfully trotted up to Aomine as the Kaijou team made their way into Touou's gym.

Kaijou's coach, coach Takeuchi was speaking with coach Harasawa, probably about the practice match that would be happening in a few minutes.

"Shouldn't you be with the rest of your team?" Aomine said with indifference.

"You're so mean! I haven't seen you in a while - the least you could do is say hello!" Kise puffed up his cheeks and crossed his arms.

"Hello, Kise. I hope you don't mind getting completely defeated today," Aomine said with a mocking grin.

Kise held up his hand and pointed a finger towards Aomine, "Yeah, right! I think you'll find our team is stronger than ever! E-Even if Kasamatsu-senpai is gone..." Aomine swore he could actually see a tear forming in Kise's eyes.

"Still doesn't mean anything if I win in the end." Aomine's eyes darted from the finger pointing towards him and Kise's determined yet slightly melancholic expression.

"Oh! Did you notice my bracelet?" Kise pulled his hand close to him and fiddled with the bracelet around his wrist with a silly look on his face.

"Er, actually, no..." Aomine cocked an eyebrow.

"Isn't it cool? I got it as a special gift," Kise gave a goofy giggle.

"A fan give you that or something?" It looked like a simple bracelet knotted out of colored string - there was nothing that really stood out about it.

"Nope! Someone a lot more special gave it to me," Kise's face was slightly flushed as he wore a huge grin.

"Huh? Did you actually get a girlfriend?" Aomine asked in slight surprise. It wasn't like Kise hadn't dated before, but since a few years ago he always claimed to never have the time for a dating life.

"Ahh!" Kise covered his hands with his face and swayed his body from side to side, "I-Its not quite like that but..."

Kise was obviously stupid and in love and honestly it was making Aomine feel kind of queasy.

"Uhg, whatever, I don't want to know. Go back to your team before I start puking," Aomine made a shooing motion with his hand.

"Hmph, Aominecchi will never understand a delicate feeling like this," Kise turned on his heel and started walking off.

"Whatever, stupid model-boy!" Aomine shouted after him.

* * *

"Ah, I forgot to tell you something earlier today, Kagami-kun"

Kuroko and Kagami were walking to the gym after school when Kuroko spoke up.

"Oh, what is it?" Kagami asked.

"I talked to Aomine-kun the other day and he seemed to be wondering where you were," Kuroko glanced over at Kagami.

"Did he... really?" Kagami asked in slight surprise.

"Yes, he never texts me out of the blue like he did and he seemed to be wondering what I've been up to lately, so I told him about our extra practices."

"That doesn't mean he was asking about me," Kagami scoffed.

"Hmm, well I think it does," Kuroko shrugged his shoulders. "Should I give you his number so you can let him know when you can't meet up with him?"

"I don't need his number..." Kagami adjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulder.

"Alright, just thought I'd offer," Kuroko said simply.

* * *

Aomine spent his weekend doing a lot of nothing. That day at school the team found out the line-up for the Interhigh preliminaries, but it didn't really matter since Aomine knew they'd eventually make it to the finals. He knew Seirin would too - no, they had to. He had been anticipating another rematch with them to see Kagami at his fullest again. Even though they had met up so many times to play one-on-one, it really wasn't the same. In spite of himself, Aomine felt a little excited thinking about the next time Touou and Seirin would stand on the court together again.

So he found himself at the public basketball court as usual. He wasn't sure if Kagami would be there or not, but Aomine decided he'd just go. He liked having a bit of solo practice anyway - it allowed him to concentrate and do some deep thinking.

He was nearly swimming in his thoughts about the past few months and the upcoming Interhighs that he barely missed the sound of the court gate opening and closing. He turned his head to see none other than Kagami.

"You're still coming here, huh?" Kagami said, standing by the gate.

"Yo," Aomine said nonchalantly.

It was quiet between the two of them for a moment.

"Yeah, so, I couldn't come all last week. We had extra practice so I was getting home late every night," Kagami scuffed his shoe across the asphalt.

Aomine shrugged his shoulders. "So? Not like I was waiting for you or anything," Aomine said and mindlessly threw the ball at the hoop. That was such a lie, but no way in hell would he admit to that.

"I just thought I'd let you know," Kagami grumbled and Aomine could hear his footsteps approaching.

Aomine kept his back towards him.

"Lemme see your phone," Kagami said quickly.

Aomine turned around with a look of confusion on his face, "Huh?"

He looked at Kagami who averted his gaze, a slight blush across his face.

"I-It'd be easier if we knew when one of us can't make it right? So..." Kagami scratched the back of his head

"Tsk," Aomine rested the basketball on his hip. "Its not like I care whether you're here or not."

"Liar. Kuroko told me that you talked to him..." Kagami mumbled.

"HUH!?" Aomine shouted, he could feel his face heating up. "I-I never asked about you when I talked to him! Damn that Tetsu...!"

"Whatever! I don't care what you two talked about - I still think its a good idea that we can contact each other so just give me your stupid number!" Kagami shouted back, his face slightly more red.

"Jeeze, fine!" Aomine huffed and pulled out his phone from his pocket.

The two sent their numbers over to each other, each pocketing their phones when they were done.

"Now was that hard?" Kagami went to set his bag down and walked back onto the court.

"Shut up, just don't go texting me all the damn time or I'll block your number," Aomine dribbled the ball.

"Why the hell would I do that unless absolutely necessary?" Kagami retorted.

Aomine shrugged. "Cuz you're dumb and annoying."

Kagami fumed and stomped up to Aomine. "Yeah? Well you're a stupid asshole!"

Aomine shoved the ball towards Kagami. "Just shut up and play, idiot." He turned to walk to his starting position.

Kagami gripped the ball tightly in his hands. "You're the idiot!" Kagami shouted back.

Aomine smirked and let out a short laugh before turning around to start the game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M BAD AND I SHOULD FEEL BAD. This took wayyyy too long to get out and I'm really sorry about that. I had a major writer's block and many distractions (*cough*steamsale*cough*) that prevented me from writing. There were so many times I just stared at my screen and couldn't type more than a few sentences. I think I'm finally getting back into the flow so I really hope a long wait like this doesn't happen again.
> 
> Anyways, thanks for being so patient. I hope there aren't many mistakes in this *sob* and I hope this chapter was worth the wait. ;~; And I will see you next time!


	8. Chapter 8

The Interhigh tournament was finally here, and with that it seemed like Seirin's spot in the finals was sound with their two major wins so far into the preliminaries. As with the previous year, Shuutoku was put in the same block as Seirin, meaning their match against Touou wouldn't be until finals. This may or may not be a good thing, but at the moment the team was riding on a high after their first two victories. It seemed their match with Shuutoku wouldn't be until the semi-finals since obviously they were doing just as well.

Seirin had just finished up their third match with an easy victory. Today was nice because they only had the one match in the morning and were free for the rest of the day. But of course, Riko urged everyone to watch the rest of the day's matches, especially since Kaijou's and Touou's matches were a bit later in the day. After getting into clean clothes and having a few minutes to spare before watching Kaijou's match, much of the team went to grab something to eat.

"Huh? Kuroko?" Kagami looked around the locker room amongst his teammates that lingered behind, chatting amongst each other about the tournament.

"Are you looking for Kuroko?" Kiyoshi walked over to Kagami after helping one of the freshmen tape up his legs.

"Yeah, did you see him? We were gonna go get a bite to eat before the match," Kagami asked.

"Ah... I believe I saw him slip out a few minutes ago. Maybe he went to the bathroom or something?" Kiyoshi shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, maybe... I'll go look for him, thanks," Kagami patted Kiyoshi on the shoulder and walked out of the locker room.

It was always surprisingly crowded at these events. Kagami didn't know high school basketball was so popular, but the turnout was always large.

He eyed the crowd for any sign of his friend. Losing Kuroko wasn't the most ideal thing, Kagami knew he could be looking right at him and still miss him, so it was always best to just wait for Kuroko to come to him. He sighed, taking out his phone and walking back towards the direction of the locker rooms. He typed in a quick message to Kuroko to meet him by the vending machines near the locker rooms and made his way to said place.

Once Kagami turned the corner at the empty part of the hall, he found a bench to sit down at. He let out a long sigh. The games weren't the most intense he had ever played, but it still took a lot out of him to do his best. The team was doing great - even Furihata, their fellow second-year, was improving tremendously and starting to become more of a regular. He pretty much proved himself after helping out so much during the Rakuzan game, even if he was like a lost, scared puppy.

Kagami rested his head against the wall and soon noticed some mumbling - it sounded like a familiar voice. Kagami strained his hearing to see if he could make out the words, or at least match the voice to a name, but was not very successful. He got up slowly from the bench and followed the sounds of the conversation. He wasn't exactly sure why he was so curious, but he didn't have anything better to do besides wait.

As he got closer to the voices he stopped as soon as he could make out something.

"...Kurokocchi..."

"Huh, that's Kise," Kagami whispered to himself - and the person he was talking with must've been Kuroko. So that's where he went off to? He sure was spending a lot of time around Kise lately, maybe they needed to talk about something before the match.

Thinking nothing of it, Kagami got closer to the two, low voices. He turned the hall and stopped dead - he felt as if he might have just walked in on something he shouldn't have.

Kise's neck was bent so that his face was inches away from Kuroko's, which looked slightly flushed with pink. The volume of the voice Kise had been speaking in got so low to the point that Kagami could barely hear it, even though he was only a few feet away. One of Kise's hands rested on Kuroko's hip and he looked like he had a serious look on his face. What were they talking about that was so important that Kise had to see Kuroko before his match?

Kagami continued to watch from behind the corner of the hall as to not be seen. A few moments passed and Kagami's eye's widened at Kise's next move.

Kise's body moved closer to Kuroko and his head rested in the crook of his neck. Kuroko jolted back a bit. For a moment, Kagami noticed that Kuroko was doing nothing to stop him, but it only took a few seconds to hear Kuroko's protest.

"Stop, Kise-kun..." Kuroko whispered, pushing Kise back.

Kise's head lifted off of Kuroko's shoulder, a slight pout on his face.

"I have to go, Kagami-kun is waiting for me."

Kuroko made to turn and that was Kagami's cue to get out of there before he was spotted. He didn't notice until he was almost back to the vending machine area that his heart was nearly beating out of his chest. It was probably due to the fact that he felt like he nearly got caught... but what was that? Their behavior was so strange that Kagami couldn't figure it out.

He took a deep breath to calm himself down. It wasn't a big deal, right? He could hear the sound of footsteps approaching and tried his best to pretend he had been waiting there the whole time.

"Sorry about that, Kagami-kun. I had something to do," Kuroko's voice sounded from beside him.

"It's alright," Kagami said casually. "Let's go get something to eat with the other guys," he said as he began walking.

"Right."

Kuroko seemed to be acting the same as usual, maybe Kagami was overreacting after all.

But Kagami couldn't settle down the entire time during lunch. The fact that Kise and Kuroko were acting so strangely bothered him for some reason, and the fact that Kuroko acted like nothing happened bothered him even more.

"Hey... Kuroko... Can I talk to you before the match starts?" Kagami leaned over and said quietly to Kuroko.

"Hmm? Whats the matter?" Kuroko asked after swallowing a bit of food.

"Err, just something kinda private..." Kagami scratched the back of his neck in nervousness.

"... Alright then."

Maybe he should butt out of this after all, but this was going to be on his mind until he got answers. Maybe Kise was actually bullying him? Kuroko had been getting called out by Kise a lot lately and he never seems to want to go into much detail as to why. And maybe that bruise on his neck...

Kagami went a little wide-eyed when he started making all of the connections. Kise never seemed like a bad guy, a little annoying but that was about it. But maybe since Kuroko had denied him so many times on coming to Kaijou he got a little too angry...

"K-Kuroko, you'd tell me if something important was going on, right?" Kagami looked over at Kuroko again, now slightly worried.

"Huh, what do you mean?" Kuroko's head cocked to the side slightly.

"If... maybe something bad were happening to you..." Kagami said in a low voice as to not let anyone else hear.

"I'm not sure why you're asking such a thing... but sure I would. I wouldn't want you to worry," Kuroko shrugged his shoulders and sipped at his shake.

Huh, it wasn't bullying then? Kagami felt relieved to hear it and silently apologized to Kise in his head for thinking anything bad about him. But then what  _was_  it?

As the Seirin teammates finished up their food, everyone headed back out to watch the rest of the day's matches. Once they got to the arena, Kagami decided now was a good time to pull Kuroko aside.

"Hey, about that thing I mentioned earlier," Kagami stopped near a quiet part of the building and Kuroko waited patiently for Kagami to finish his thought. "When I was waiting for you... I actually saw you with Kise - what was with that? Ah, I don't mean to sound rude or anything..."

Kuroko's face visibly stiffened and he looked genuinely surprised, almost as if he had been found doing something bad.

"...How much did you see?" Kuroko asked quietly.

"N-Not much! I couldn't hear what you two were saying either. I just saw Kise get really close to you... so I thought maybe something was going on between the two of you. It's probably none of my business though..."

"No, it's not."

Kagami was a bit taken aback by Kuroko's stern response. He had never witnessed Kuroko being so defensive, so it was kind of shocking.

"O-Oh, of course, I'm sorry... I shouldn't have asked," Kagami ran a hand through his hair, not sure what to do at that point. "I guess we'll go meet up with the others, then. The game should be starting soon."

Kagami turned on his heel quickly to get away from the awkward atmosphere he had just created, yet he didn't hear the quiet sound of a second pair of footsteps following him. He turned around after taking a few more steps to see Kuroko planted in the same spot, his eyes cast downward and his demeanor a bit less cheery.

"Uh, please forget I asked any of that..." Kagami felt guilty as he saw Kuroko standing there by himself. "I really didn't mean-"

"Kagami-kun... We're friends, right?" Kuroko asked quietly.

Kagami felt his heart jump in his chest a bit at the sudden question. "O-Of course we are! Idiot..." Kagami grumbled.

Kuroko took a deep sigh and looked up, "Fine, I'll tell you what was going on." Kuroko walked a few steps to where Kagami stood. He looked as if he was incredibly nervous about what he was going to say next. "Kise-kun asked to come meet him after my match today, so I went out to see him. We met in that isolated hall you saw us at. We talked for a bit, he congratulated me and I wished him luck on his match - the typical stuff."

Kagami nodded as he listened intently.

"Then he kissed me," Kuroko said flatly.

"... K-Kissed?!" Kagami's eyes shot wide open.

"And I kissed him back," Kuroko continued.

"Huh!?" Thoughts were flying through Kagami's mind at a million miles a minute. Did he hear that correctly? Kissed? Why would they... kiss?

"Kise-kun then started telling me things that I'd rather not go into detail with, I noticed that you sent me a message on my phone so I knew you'd probably start looking for me. Kise-kun started getting handsy with me and that's when I told him that I had to go meet with you," Kuroko finished his sentence with another short sigh.

"But... why were you two..." Kagami asked, still dazed and confused.

"Kagami-kun - why do two people kiss?" Kuroko crossed his arms and asked.

"B-Because... they like each other?"

"And?"

"Um..." Kagami thought for a moment. "They're... dating?"

"Exactly," Kuroko gave a nod of confirmation.

"You're dating Kise?!" Kagami shouted, it didn't take long for an elbow to make contact with his stomach.

"Please don't yell something like that," Kuroko scolded.

"B-But you... and Kise? Huh?" Kagami rubbed at his stomach.

"Don't ask..." Kuroko sighed yet again. "Besides that, you don't think its disgusting?"

"Disgusting?" Kagami was slightly confused.

"We're... two men," Kuroko looked off to the side.

Oh. Kagami was surprised that he didn't even think about that. All he thought about were all the times Kuroko had said Kise was annoying or how he and Kise had clashing personalities - or how Kise was pretty much their rival. It had never really crossed his mind that Kise was male just like Kuroko.

"No, it's not disgusting... I don't think that at all," Kagami replied.

"... Really?" Kuroko looked hopeful as his eyes settled on Kagami.

Kagami could tell how relieved Kuroko was feeling upon hearing that. Of course. That's why Kuroko asked for a confirmation of their friendship. Did he seriously believe Kagami would think any differently of him just because he was dating another man? But it would make sense, not everyone would be so accepting of their relationship. It only made sense that Kuroko would be a little cautious.

"Yeah, really. It's just... I didn't think you liked Kise all that much," Kagami laughed slightly.

Kuroko let a breath of relief through his nose and smiled, "It's hard to say how this all happened. I'm surprised even with myself."

"Well... I'm happy for you!" Kagami clapped a hand on Kuroko's shoulder. "I've never seen you as the dating type, but whatever makes you happy."

"I am happy..." Kuroko said quietly.

"We'll celebrate sometime then! For now we're gonna be late to your boyfriend's match," Kagami said with a cheeky grin.

"Shut up..." Kuroko blushed slightly.

Kagami let out a laugh as the two made their way inside.

So Kuroko was dating Kise, huh? Another man... Kagami wondered if Kuroko was gay from the start, but he guessed it didn't really matter since he never imagined Kuroko getting a girlfriend either. It wasn't because he thought Kuroko couldn't get one, he just never really seemed interested. Hell, there was a girl like Momoi who threw herself at him all the time and Kuroko showed no reaction whatsoever.

But dating a guy? Was that different than dating girls? Kagami hated to admit it, but he hadn't had much dating experience either. Of course he'd seen gay couples while living in America, and he knew they were in Japan as well - they just weren't as 'visible'. What would it be like dating another guy...? No, Kagami couldn't see himself dating another man... He couldn't possibly...

"Oh yeah, Kagami-kun?"

"Hm?" Kagami was ripped from his thoughts at the sound of Kuroko's voice.

"Please don't tell anyone... With Kise's modeling career, this kind of thing..."

"Don't worry, I won't tell a soul," Kagami reassured his friend.

Kuroko looked relieved as the two neared the noisy arena. As they walked inside, a sudden thought hit Kagami.

"Wait... was that really a bruise on your neck a few weeks ago?"

Kuroko's blush deepened without a word. Kagami could feel his face flushing a bit too.

* * *

Kaijou won their game with ease, the game was almost a no-brainer as they took their victory and shook hands with the other team on the court. As they lined up to walk off, Kise looked up in the stands where Seirin was sitting and waved, wearing his model smile.

"Huh, is that Kise Ryouta waving in our direction?" One of the freshman whispered. Kuroko sunk down lower in his seat as Kagami snickered.

The next match on the court was one of Touou's and the team had already started to walk out. Kagami's eyes fell on the black and red jersey's, quickly spotting a face he had seen a lot of over the past few months.

"I haven't gotten to see Aomine-kun play in a while. I wonder how much he's changed since last year," Kuroko commented.

"Y-Yeah... Besides our one-on-ones we haven't seen him play an official match, huh," Kagami nodded. He could actually feel himself getting a bit excited for the match.

Both teams began to warm up and Kagami's eyes followed Aomine's every move. It seemed like his moves were so calculated, he didn't waste an ounce of energy on something unnecessary. Every muscle in his body moved naturally and flawlessly. This was something Kagami saw almost every day, but for some reason seeing him on the court was something totally different.

"Kagami-kun?" Kuroko nudged at Kagami's arm. He snapped back to his senses and looked over at his friend.

"You were spacing out, are you alright?" Kuroko asked.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Kagami sat up and scratched at his chin.

"Well, Kise texted me to go see him, so..." Kuroko looked down at his phone.

"Again? Well I guess he did just win his game after all," Kagami didn't really get relationships...

"So... I'll be back," Kuroko stood up and made his way out into the isle.

"He's going to miss the beginning of the game..." Kagami grumbled to himself.

"W-Wow..."

"We're going to have to go up against them? I knew they were an amazing team, but... knowing that they're going to be our opponents eventually makes then even more intimidating..."

A few of the freshman talked amongst themselves as they eyed the almost 100 point difference of a victory that Touou had just delivered.

"That Aomine guy is seriously scary, did you see how he was grinning when he made those baskets?"

"Right? I'm glad I'm not on first string..."

Kagami had seen it and it was almost amazing how much Aomine's attitude had changed. Before, Aomine would almost look bored on the court, sometimes he looked so angry. But now he was actually smiling... Was this how he used to be?

"I'm glad Aomine-kun seems to be having fun again," Even Kuroko seemed happy to see Aomine that way.

"I like him better this way," Kagami agreed.

Kuroko looked over at him, slightly surprised.

"You know what I mean..." Kagami scoffed. "I mean, who wants to see someone play who isn't enjoying himself? This kind of Aomine is a lot better..."

"Mm," Kuroko nodded. He didn't come back until the first quarter was halfway through, but it didn't matter too much since the second half of the game is when things really started to get serious.

"That was the last match of today. I hope all of you have taken some serious mental notes on what you've seen today. We're going to get going so make sure you get lots of rest because we have two matches tomorrow!" Riko said with authority.

"That's right, everyone. We have serious competition; don't get too comfortable because we're still in the preliminaries," Kiyoshi nodded in agreement.

"Let's get going, everyone!" Riko signaled for everyone to leave as the auditorium slowly started to file out.

"Are you going to go see Aomine-kun before we leave?" Kuroko asked.

"Huh? Why would I do that?" Kagami furrowed his brow.

"I thought the two of you had become friends," Kuroko shrugged.

"Friends..." Kagami muttered under his breath. "He didn't come see me after my match so why should I bother seeing him?

"That's true..." Kuroko replied. "Aomine-kun isn't really the kind of person to do that kind of thing, though."

"Well neither am I," Kagami crossed his arms and huffed.

As the team walked out of the arena, Kagami felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He grabbed it to check if he had missed a call or something.

'Did u see that? Hope ur ready to get ur ass beat just as bad!'

Kagami seethed as he didn't even have to check who the message was from before mashing the buttons in reply.

'Yeah right, dumbass! Don't get so cocky, bastard! We're definitely winning!'

Kagami shoved his phone back in his pocket, not really feeling like dealing with Aomine at the moment.

"Did you get a message from Aomine-kun?" Kuroko asked.

"M-Maybe..." Kagami mumbled.

"It was probably him boasting about the game, right?"

"Che, of course," Kagami said, sticking his hand in his pocket and wrapping it around his phone.

It didn't take long to feel the vibration in his hand.

'Well u better get thru these prelims so I can destroy u or I won't forgive u.'

Kagami scoffed with a smirk.

'Of course I will cuz we're going to win Interhigh.'

* * *

"Good job everyone, but don't let today get to your head because we still have many more matches to go. Make sure you drink plenty of liquids and get some nutrients in you. That's all," Coach Harasawa dismissed himself from the locker room and left the team to get ready to head home.

"Heh..." Aomine checked his phone to see the response from Kagami. He was cocky? He could say the same thing about him.

"Oh, Aomine-senpai, are you texting your girlfriend?" One of the freshman stood beside him and asked.

"Huh?" Aomine cocked and eyebrow and glared at his teammate.

"U-Umm..." The freshman seemed to shrink in Aomine's intimidating presence. "It's just... I kept seeing you look up in the stands during the game and now you're smiling at your phone... Plus you're so popular..."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Aomine growled.

"N-Nothing! I'm sorry!" The freshman cowered in fear and inched away slowly.

"A brute like him couldn't get a girlfriend even if he tried," Wakamatsu butted into the conversation.

"What'd you say, you bastard?" Aomine's glare was now directed towards his captain.

"Like any girl would put up with your behavior - unless she was just like you or something," Wakamatsu scoffed.

"You wanna say that again after I cave your face in?" Aomine stomped up to Wakamatsu.

"I'd like to see you try!" Wakamatsu stood his ground.

"Dai-chan! Wakamatsu-kun! Don't fight!" Momoi must've walked into the locker room at the right moment as she ran up to get in between the two.

"Stay out of this, Satsuki!" Aomine shouted.

"Dai-chan, stop this and grow up!" Momoi yelled back.

Aomine froze in place and looked down in surprise.

"Stop fighting with Wakamatsu-kun all the time! And you!" She turned to Wakamatsu, "As a captain you should be behaving yourself the most! If you two fight again you won't be on the starting line-up for the next game!"

"What?!" Both of them said simultaneously.

"I will get coach to pull you two no matter what," Momoi crossed her arms, "So stop being so childish - both of you!" She huffed and stormed out of the locker room.

"Psh, whatever, I don't have time to deal with you," Aomine turned and walked back to his locker.

"Same here..." Wakamatsu grumbled.

"Wow, Momoi-san is amazing..." One of the freshman said quietly to the other.

"I definitely wouldn't have been able to put myself in the middle of those two. Scary..." The other one agreed.

* * *

Kagami took a deep breath as he shut his locker. He was glad that Mitobe brought his honey lemons today since Riko still seems to think she can even touch food and it turn into anything but terrible...

"I'm gonna go get a Pocari from the vending machine, want one?" He asked Kuroko who was tying his shoes on the bench next to him.

"If you could, thanks," Kuroko nodded.

Kagami walked out into the hallway where many other teams were buzzing about and walking in and out of their designated locker rooms. After today's matches were to be the semi-finals and the finals of the preliminaries. Like last year, they would most likely go up against Shuutoku, so tomorrow was going to be a really important day.

Kagami made his way to the vending machine, dug out his wallet and dropped a few coins in.

"Yo," he heard a voice beside him and turned his neck to see an all too familiar face.

"Aomine..." Kagami's hand hovered over the button on the vending machine.

Aomine leaned over and pushed the button instead, leaning down to pick up the drink from the machine.

"H-Hey! That's mine!" Kagami grabbed for it but Aomine quickly moved it from his grasp.

"Relax, here," he held out his hand in a closed fist. "I was coming here to buy one too so here's my change."

Kagami held out his hand and Aomine dropped the coins onto his palm.

"Thanks..." Kagami grumbled as he put the coins in the machine again.

"I'll be watching your match against Shuutoku tomorrow, right?" Aomine asked as he leaned up against the wall next to the vending machine.

Kagami stood up after grabbing the bottle from the machine. "Um... Yes?" Kagami responded, mildly confused.

"Good," Aomine took a swig from his drink and let out a sigh. "Because its not worth it if we aren't going to be playing against each other again."

Aomine lifted himself away from the wall and started walking down the hall.

"Huh?" Kagami took a step to follow him but stopped.

"Just quickly get to the finals!" Aomine said without turning around and continued to walk off.

Kagami stood planted in place for a moment, holding on to the bottle of Pocari and watching Aomine get further and further away.

"Of course I will," he said too quietly for anyone to hear, let alone Aomine.

It took him a moment to find his feet moving again and slowly made his way to the locker room. He sat down at the bench beside Kuroko and let out a sigh.

"Um, Kagami-kun, did you get my Pocari?"

"Ah, oh..." Kagami looked down at his hands and the one bottle he was holding. "Sorry, here, it must've slipped my mind."

Kagami handed over the bottle to Kuroko.

"Are you alright? You seem distracted," Kuroko took the bottle from Kagami.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kagami gave a reassuring smile and stood up. "I'm gonna go back to the vending machine."

Kuroko watched Kagami walk off again.

"Oh, Kagami, you look like you're in a haze and you seem a little flushed - you alright?" Kiyoshi asked as he was about to walk out the door.

"Huh? I'm alright," Kagami flustered and scratched the back of his head in nervousness.

"Hm, alright!" Kiyoshi shrugged his shoulders and Kagami walked out of the room.

Kuroko smiled to himself and checked his phone, he had a message from Kise wishing him good luck with his games today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, I'm so glad I got this out in time for Aomine's birthday! Happy birthday, Aomine! It makes me feel kinda bad that this chapter ended up being a little KiKuro-centric but I think it was important for Kuroko to tell Kagami his secret. I think Kagami and Aomine had some nice moments despite Aomine not being in this chapter too much.
> 
> Also, I have to apologize if you ever see me going back and forth with 'Kiyoshi' & 'Teppei'. I usually prefer to use last names when writing in third-person, but I call Kiyoshi by his first name a lot in casual conversation. So I might let a Teppei slip out once in a while in my writing. I find myself having to change all the 'Teppei's to 'Kiyoshi' all the time...
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) I really like writing this as a slow build because I get a lot of time to think about how the relationship progresses and I don't want it to feel rushed. I really want to be careful with this story since AoKaga is my OTP and I want to portray them as accurately as possible but also input my idea of what their relationship would be like.
> 
> I'm always so happy to see people liking and saying nice things about this story and it always puts a smile on my face. :3 I hope you can continue to enjoy and read this story. See you next time! :*


	9. Chapter 9

Kagami looked at the scoreboard in disbelief. If he hadn't just experienced the past few hours himself, he wouldn't have believed it. Seirin had lost by a sizable margin to Shuutoku. How? Kagami and Seirin had improved tremendously since last year's competition and now they couldn't even get to the finals of the preliminaries? Or was it that Shuutoku was training and practicing and improving twice as much.

Kagami's chest rose and fell, beads of sweat dripped down all over his body, his muscles ached - he tried his best yet the tournament was over for him.

But he knew - he knew that there were barriers he put up himself, and that's why the results were as they were. Once he saw Midorima again - once he saw Shuutoku again, and how much they had built their team up, Kagami couldn't help but go back to thinking about how he barely beat them, how maybe he wasn't even on Midorima's level, that everything was just a fluke until now. One point differences the entire Winter Cup? Maybe that was just luck...

"Kagami-kun, we have to line up," he heard a voice beside him and a pull on his arm.

"R-Right..." Kagami still felt like he was in a daze as he lined up with the rest of his defeated teammates.

* * *

"Talk about a fall from grace," someone commented behind Aomine.

"Yeah, considering they won the Winter Cup last year I was pretty excited to see this game. What a disappointment."

Aomine tsked and quickly lifted himself from his seat, pushing his way out of the isles to leave the stadium.

"Hey, Aomine! Get back here!" Wakamatsu shouted after him.

"Just let him be," the coach said in a composed manner.

"Dai-chan..." Momoi said softly under her breath. She was conflicted as to whether she should chase after him or not. She had a feeling as to why Aomine was so upset and she thought maybe it would be best to leave him alone, at least for now.

Aomine stormed his way through the crowd into the wing of the stadium that held the locker rooms. He barely made it into a quiet alcove before punching at the wall in frustration.

"Shit!" He hissed under his breath, a little from the pain in his fist but mostly from frustration.

How could Kagami lose that game so easily? The entire time he watched he could tell that Kagami wasn't fully there the entire time. He made stupid mistakes and it seemed like all those times he had gone one-on-one with the guy on the court were all just some dream.

More than anything, Aomine felt betrayed. Kagami said he would make it to the finals. And now this? The only thing he looked forward to ever since the year started was to go up against Seirin again, and now he had to witness such a sloppy performance, only for that wish to be taken away from him.

With another grunt of frustration Aomine turned and walked away from the lockers, making his way out of the stadium. He would just find his own way back home for today.

* * *

After their defeat at Interhighs, Kagami couldn't bring himself to go to the public court the days following Seirin's defeat. He thought he would come back to the locker room to find an angry text message from Aomine, but received nothing. Touou went on to the finals where they ended up tasting defeat against Rakuzan - they were still a dominant force even after last year's loss at Winter Cup. Scarily enough, Akashi and Rakuzan had probably become stronger.

But as Kagami watched the remaining games of the match, he had noticed Aomine starting to revert back to how he used to play. He hogged the ball and rarely showed any cooperation of with his teammates. Aomine had been doing so well, too, but ever since Seirin's loss to Shuutoku it looked like Aomine's ambition was also lost.

Kagami couldn't bear to face him. He could barely face himself, not to mention Kuroko and the rest of his teammates. He knew their loss was in his hands even if they never placed the blame on him. What had gotten into him that day? What had gotten into him since winter? He had reached his peak, he was at the top, and now he was suddenly slipping? It was as if something was needed there to hold him up at the top - but what was it? What was it that Kagami needed to remain the player he dreamed of being? Were his teammates not enough?

When Seirin returned to school, Riko still smiled and told the team she was proud of them and that this wasn't the end, reminding them that last year was the same way and they could definitely make it all the way at Winter Cup. She gave them a few days off to rest, but with Kagami's performance he couldn't do that and went to the gym by himself after school. Of course, Kuroko had went along with him, as he knew Kagami all too well and figured his friend would be sneaking in extra practice.

For a couple hours a day, the two quietly practiced in the gym and left home together. They didn't say much to each other and Kagami was somewhat grateful to Kuroko for giving him some space, but he knew Kuroko would eventually speak up.

"You haven't met up with Aomine-kun since Interhigh ended, haven't you?" Kuroko said as the two finished up changing their clothes in the locker room after practice.

"Nah, I haven't," Kagami said nonchalantly, slamming the locker closed and stuffing his sweaty clothes into his bag.

"I haven't heard from him either," Kuroko added. "I was worried about how he was playing during the competition."

"Well he's just that kind of obnoxious guy to think only about himself," Kagami shrugged and turned to walk out of the locker room.

"But even you have to admit that he had been making good progress, I felt like Aomine was finally returning to his old self" Kuroko said in a somber voice, following behind Kagami.

Kagami paused for a moment. He thought so too. "Well, he's kind of full of himself so its not a surprise..."

"I was hoping that meeting up with you was changing him a bit. I guess I was wrong," Kuroko said quietly beside him.

Kagami couldn't think of what to respond to that and stayed quiet. Before he knew it they reached the part of their route where they parted ways.

"It's not your fault, Kagami-kun," Kuroko said as Kagami began heading towards his apartment.

Kagami stopped in place, turning back around halfway.

"I know you're blaming yourself for our loss at Interhigh, but it's not completely your fault," Kuroko continued. "Yes, I will admit that I felt like you were not giving it your all that day, but I can admit guilt of that as well. Having a new team, going up against Midorima-kun again and completely underestimating how much left there was for Shuutoku to improve - we were all overwhelmed."

Kagami's gaze cast downward at the sidewalk.

"We just need to gather ourselves and realize that we need to get stronger. Maybe we let the victory of last year's Winter Cup go to our heads. But I know we can do it together - with everyone," Kuroko walked up to Kagami and held his fist out towards him.

Kagami stood unmoving for a moment, trying to take in all of what Kuroko said. As usual, his smaller friend always knew the right things to say. This wasn't the end of the world, just because he felt a little lost didn't mean that everything was over - all he would have to do is just find what was missing. He had Kuroko by his side, he had all of Seirin by his side.

"Yeah, we can do it," Kagami smirked and lifted up his fist to meet with Kuroko's.

* * *

It was the beginning of Golden Week. Kagami had concerned himself so much with practice that he would often just walk straight home. Even though Golden Week was considered their time off, Riko had decided to keep up with regular practices, especially after giving the team a break after Interhigh.

Kagami hadn't talked to Aomine for almost two weeks now. Even after Kuroko's encouraging words, there was still something that held him back from speaking with him. It wasn't like they were friends or anything... But he couldn't help feeling a little guilty about his obvious avoidance of the other man.

Kagami was taking deep breaths as he approached the court he had also been avoiding. Its not like it was guaranteed that Aomine would be there, but just the fact that it was so familiar to him as the place that they always met was enough to make him a little nervous. Rounding the corner it was a bit of relief and disappointment at the same time - Aomine wasn't there, just a few younger kids messing around.

Kagami sighed and walked onto the court. Even when he and Aomine weren't talking the guy was affecting him so much. Who does he think he is...

Kagami made a few warm up shots at the other end of the court, away from the others who were there. After a while it was as if he were on auto-pilot and continued to dribble the ball on the court, with the occasional shot at the basket. So many thoughts were running through his mind and he couldn't quite concentrate on just one thing. He couldn't even tell how long he had been at the court as his concerns switched from one thing to the next.

He probably would've continued doing this until dark if it weren't for someone else coming up next to him and shooting their own ball in the net. Kagami was about to turn and confront him, but froze up when he noticed a man with similar stature and tan skin.

"Aomine..." Kagami let his name slip out of his mouth even though he hadn't meant to.

Aomine made his way over to retrieve the ball he had thrown and slowly sauntered his way back over to Kagami.

"Yo," he said simply, averting his eyes and letting the ball bounce against the asphalt.

"Err... Come here to practice?" Kagami rubbed the back of his neck, making an attempt to make the atmosphere between them less awkward. He should've known there was a chance that Aomine would come by sometime today... But maybe that's exactly what he was waiting for.

Aomine didn't reply as he turned around and made a shot for the net on the opposite side of the now empty court. It went in with a clean  _swoosh_  of the net.

' _Show off...'_  Kagami thought as he stayed in place.

"One-on-one," Kagami turned around as he heard Aomine finally speak up. "You're here for a game, right?" Aomine held up his ball with one hand.

Kagami just looked at Aomine for a moment without a reply. Actually, he hadn't been waiting for a game with Aomine. It was something that had become so routine for him, but Kagami knew that's not what his wandering feet brought him here for today. As much as he'd like to deny it, he was simply waiting for Aomine to show up so this weird thing of them ignoring each other could just blow over.

"Yeah, you're on," Kagami nodded, setting his own ball aside and meeting Aomine at half court. He wanted to talk with him, but he just couldn't find it in himself to bring it up.

Aomine's expression was serious, but it was different than usual. A cheeky smirk would usually cross his face, but now it was just like how it was when Kagami first met him - filled purely with intimidation.

"Here," Aomine tossed the ball towards Kagami. "You can have the ball first."

Kagami barely reacted in time to catch the ball. "Alright..." Kagami readied his stance, giving the ball a few hits against the ground before making his move, turning his back to Aomine to quickly pass by him with complicated footwork.

It seemed like Kagami had gotten a good head start on him until he realized the ball was no longer in his hands. Eyes widening, his head whipped around to already see Aomine darting towards the basket. Kagami pushed his legs as fast as he could to catch up, he was at Aomine's back, ready to steal the ball as Aomine readied his shot. But Kagami fell for the fake as Aomine instead tossed the ball to his other hand and threw it up in the air - a formless shot that went effortlessly into the basket.

Kagami gave a grunt as he reached out to retrieve the ball. It was frustrating. Unlike him, Aomine's basketball never seemed to be affected by his emotions. Why could Aomine still be so amazing and he himself caused such a tragedy of a game just because he was having some qualms about if he was good enough?

Every time Kagami felt like he had finally had the upper hand, Aomine was there to knock him down a notch. Why was this so difficult? Why could he no longer keep up with Aomine? The basket count on his side remaining at zero did nothing to help him.

After Aomine scored his third basket, he stood in place, unmoving and making no attempts to continue with the game.

Kagami tried to settle his breathing, wiping some of the sweat off of his face as his eyes stayed on Aomine who took calm, steady breaths, his back facing towards him.

"What's your problem?" Kagami commented as he went to retrieve the ball.

"I don't feel like playing against you," Aomine said quietly, turning a bit and walking away.

"What?" Kagami felt slightly offended and followed after him.

"I don't feel like playing against someone who isn't worth playing against," Aomine continued casually.

"What the hell!? What's gotten into you?" Kagami placed a firm hand on Aomine's shoulder.

Aomine quickly shrugged off Kagami's hand and faced the redhead with a glare in his eyes. "What's gotten into me? What's gotten into  _you_? Who the hell was that playing just now? As a matter of fact - who the hell was that playing at Interhigh?"

Kagami let out a huff but kept his mouth closed. So Aomine had noticed it too - his playing. Well, it'd be kind of surprising of Aomine didn't notice.

"I'm just not on my game lately, its nothing..." Kagami tried to play it off as a small issue.

"Bullshit," Aomine spat, Kagami flinched slightly. "That sorry excuse for playing definitely isn't a fluke if you're still playing like crap even today."

"Well excuse me for not being perfect like you!" Kagami raised his voice, getting tired of Aomine's judgment.

"Its not about being perfect, you're just playing like shit and it doesn't make any sense!" Aomine yelled back, getting closer to Kagami.

"I don't know why this is happening either!" Kagami's face turned red slightly in anger and frustration. Someone like Aomine wouldn't understand - he could be at the top of his game when he didn't even care about basketball, so he never had to deal with something like this.

The two of them were silent for a moment, both staring daggers into each other. After a few seconds Aomine clicked his tongue and backed away.

"You even lied about your promise..." He grumbled, barely audible.

"Huh?" Kagami wasn't quite sure what he had just heard.

"Ah, jeeze, I'm leaving!" Aomine said louder, turning around and continuing his walk off the court.

"Hey!" Kagami followed after Aomine who continued to ignore him.

Promise? Kagami didn't remember making any promises with Aomine. They had their deal about having a one-on-one at the public court, but that was about it. And even then that wasn't so much a 'promise' as a deal to have a game whenever they both so happened to be there. On several occasions one or the other didn't show up and it was never a very big deal, especially when one could just text the other.

So it couldn't be that, but what other instance would Kagami and Aomine have mad a promise? Kagami went over the events of Interhigh in his head. The big thing that stood out was Kuroko revealing his secret to him, also the fact that they lost so badly to Shuutoku. Was there something else?

Then Kagami remembered - by the vending machine...

" _Because its not worth it if we aren't going to be playing against each other again."_

Aomine had said those words and Kagami didn't think much of them. But... was that the reason Aomine had been angry with him? And was that reason Aomine's attitude about basketball had reverted back to his old ways from last year? Did Aomine truly feel like playing again wasn't worth it unless he was going up against Seirin?

"That wasn't a promise, you know," Kagami said aloud.

At that Aomine stopped but did not turn around.

"When I said we'd defeat Shuutoku - that was never a promise," Kagami continued.

"... You still lied about it," Aomine said, much more calmly.

"Yeah, I know..." Kagami paused for a moment, clenching his fists and squeezing his eyes shut. "... S-Sorry..."

Aomine barely heard it but he knew he heard right. He turned his body around to see Kagami flinching and turning away from him. "What for?"

"Jeeze, you know what for!" Kagami crossed his arms and still avoided looking in Aomine's direction. "That... Well, how we didn't win, okay? Something's gotten into me, I dunno what it is. I'm trying to fix it but I just can't figure it out..."

Kagami cringed. He couldn't believe he actually made himself so vulnerable in front of his rival and pretty much told him something that was so personal. He even seriously apologized to him for something he did.

Aomine stayed silent for a moment, crossing his own arms and mulling over Kagami's words. "Well you're just gonna have to fix that," he let out a sigh, "Tomorrow - meet me here at 8:30 in the morning sharp." He casually turned back around and continued walking.

"What?" Kagami caught up beside him.

"I'm gonna make damn sure you get yourself straightened out before winter. Because if you do that again I'm not going easy on you like I did this time," Aomine's sentence got quieter as he spoke and kept his eyes straight ahead.

"Well I better not be seeing you play while looking so bored either! What was up with that attitude during Interhigh?" Kagami retorted.

"It was because you..." Aomine paused, giving a slight huff, "Because none of those other teams really mattered. There was all my former teammates, but... if most of their team were just going to give up before the game even began of course the outcome was obvious from the beginning. The only exception being Rakuzan, obviously."

Kagami was a bit taken aback at Aomine's words. He recalled Kuroko telling him that Aomine lost his motivation because of something like that. But Akashi and the rest of the Miracles were definitely a challenge. How come they weren't enough to make Aomine feel like basketball was worth playing again? Why did it have to be Seirin?

"Just hurry up and get back to how you used to be so I can quickly play against you again..." Aomine mumbled, scuffing his shoe against the sidewalk.

It felt like this was probably a rare sight, to see Aomine asking for something like this so genuinely. Kagami figured the face he was currently making was a really embarrassed one as he refused to turn around and look at him.

"Only if you do too," Kagami replied simply. "You can bet I'll be here tomorrow."

"Yeah..." Aomine said before walking off in the direction of his home.

Kagami stood in place and watched Aomine get further and further away before going back to his apartment. He wasn't entirely sure if they had made up just then or if things were about to get even worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this chapter is a bit boring, but consider this a segue into the next chapter which will definitely be a lot more interesting. ^^ Really sorry this took so long to update as well. Last month I moved, not only that I have three other stories that I'm trying to upkeep as well. As always, I will try not to fall very far behind... But know that even if updates take a while my stories WILL be completed, so do not fret!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading and all of the kind words I've been given so far about this story. I'm really happy to see people enjoy it! (: Oh yeah, and it looks like Kurobas will be getting a sequel! Very exciting! See you next time! :*


	10. Chapter 10

Practice was in the evening, so it wasn't like meeting up with Aomine was an issue. It was more wondering if this whole thing was going to be awkward or not. Arguing wasn't something foreign to the two, but the previous day's quarrel seemed like something more personal than just basketball. They were definitely rivals, but Kagami guessed it was more on friendlier terms. Aomine really knew how to make his blood boil, but once again it almost seemed as if he was being helpful to Kagami by insisting they practice together to get Kagami back on his game. He really didn't know how Aomine felt about him, it would've seemed that the other man didn't care for him much by the way he acted, but the little things he did and the fact that he seemed to care about Kagami's situation was something that suggested that maybe Aomine really wasn't such a terrible guy.

Honestly, Aomine almost seemed... lonely. It was something Kagami had questioned to himself in passing before. He always looked lonely when Kagami would see him on the court by himself before he noticed Kagami had arrived. At least for Kagami he got along well with his teammates and Kuroko was his best friend, but Aomine seemed to isolate everyone else from himself. The only one that he had ever seen Aomine with was Momoi, but it was almost like she had just been there from the beginning anyway and he had gotten used to it. Even then, he'd always vehemently attempt to get her to leave the two alone whenever it was time for he and Kagami to play their one-on-one.

Kagami thought that Aomine was virtually friendless because of his bad attitude, but maybe it was actually something more...

Aomine glanced over his shoulder as he heard the gate to the court opening, "Thought you might not come," he commented as he tossed the ball into the basket.

"Of course I came, I said I would," Kagami huffed and set down his bag on the bench. "So what exactly are we doing today?"

"Practicing," Aomine bent over to pick up the basketball, "All you gotta do is get the ball in the hoop and we'll be done."

"Huh? That's it?" Kagami cocked an eyebrow and gave Aomine and unsure stare.

"Yep," Aomine tossed the ball over to Kagami. "You know I haven't been going all out during our one-on-ones, right?" He smirked.

"Well... me neither," Kagami retorted and dribbled the ball a few times.

"Good then. There's no holding back today."

Both of them met at center court. They glared their usual daggers into each other. Kagami had just gotten there but he was already getting heated up and anxious to have battle with the beast in front of him.

It didn't take long to realize Aomine wasn't bluffing. Maybe Kagami really had been affected by the loss at Interhigh and everything else that had been happening, because after fifteen minutes he was already pouring sweat and breathing heavily without a single shot making it to the basket.

Finally, with a burst of adrenaline, determination, and maybe a little frustration, Kagami managed to get past Aomine's defenses and slam the ball into the hoop.

"Took you long enough," Aomine commented as he settled his hands on his hips.

"Shut up. I did it, didn't I?"

Only after a short amount of time, the two of them were covered in sweat, trying to catch their breaths.

"That's it then, I guess," Aomine said, walking over towards the bench.

"Huh, seriously?" Kagami followed after him "We're done after just that?"

"I said all you had to do was get the ball in the basket, so yeah," Aomine shrugged and took a swig off his water battle.

"But I wanted to play more!" Kagami shouted without much thought.

Aomine gave a slightly bewildered face and Kagami knew right after uttering those words how childish they sounded.

Aomine's face broke into a smile and let out a booming laugh. "What the hell, are you a kid?"

"W-Well you make me get up early on my day off and come meet you at the court, of course I want to make it worth my time!" Kagami defended himself with slightly pink cheeks.

Aomine smirked and set down his bottle without taking his eyes off of Kagami. "Fine. We'll 'play' some more," he joked, grabbing the ball from Kagami's hands. "But I don't feel like playing one-on-one," he turned back around and held the ball up next to his head. "Let's run some drills."

"Drills? Why?" Kagami furrowed his brows. He'd be having to do that later today, he didn't want to necessarily do more than he had to.

"Because you're the one who did so shitty against Midorima," Aomine said nonchalantly. "You obviously need more practice."

"I told you it's just something going on with me! Its not a permanent thing or anything," Kagami was already annoyed by this problem, he didn't need Aomine constantly bringing it up.

"That's why I'm gonna make damn sure you fix that problem of yours even if it kills you," Aomine said more seriously.

Kagami hesitated to speak and ended up closing his mouth for the retort he was readying to say. Once again there was this strange niceness that Aomine chose to show despite how brash he came off as. Kagami didn't even ask for any of this help, Aomine just insisted on it and didn't even bother to ask. He was definitely kind of strange in some ways.

"Well, I won't be dying anytime soon," Kagami replied coolly.

* * *

The two sort of fell into a routine where they decided to meet every day during the week for some practice. All it took was Aomine suggesting they meet up the next day to practice again and it led to them going on for five days in a row now. Even more surprising was how civil it was. Of course the two couldn't go very long without making an insulting jab or two, but they never escalated into full-blown arguments. Aomine guessed it really was possible for the two to not constantly be at each other's throats. He even surprised himself by suggesting to go get Maji afterward when Kagami made a comment about being hungry. Aomine knew he only did so because he was feeling hungry as well. Nothing much else to it.

Aomine went up to get his food first while Kagami found a place for them to sit. He always liked the teriyaki burgers the place had so he'd always order a good amount ever time time. Once his order was called he picked up his tray and went to find where Kagami had sat, and once Aomine arrived the redhead went to go get his food.

Taking a bite of the juicy burger made Aomine realize just how hungry he was. He didn't eat much of a breakfast so by now he was completely starving. He wondered if he should've gotten maybe another burger or more fries while he was up there.

After finishing his first burger, Kagami still wasn't back with his food. Aomine wondered what the hell was taking so long, there wasn't very many people here at the moment. When Aomine was half way through his second burger, Kagami finally returned to the table and set his tray down and sitting across from him.

Aomine's eyes widened at the sight in front of him, then began looking around the restaurant in all directions.

"Uh, what are you looking for?" Kagami asked.

"For whoever the hell is joining us because why else would you have bought so many damn burgers?" Aomine looked out towards the entrance of the restaurant.

"What? This is all for me," Kagami seemed a bit confused over Aomine's reaction.

"Are you serious? What are you, a black hole!?" Aomine's eyes settled back on the mountain of burgers before him.

Seriously, it was way too much! Even for him, who considered himself a person who ate a good bit, found the portion absolutely ridiculous.

Kagami shrugged, "I'm just a really hungry guy, I guess," he grabbed one of the burgers off of his tray, unwrapped it, and took a huge bite.

"Hungry is an understatement..." Aomine mumbled with a mouthful of food.

Aomine was more curious as to if Kagami could  _actually_  finish all those burgers. But only a few minutes passed and several had already disappeared off of the tray.

He himself finished up his meal when there were a few burgers left on Kagami's tray. If he hadn't just watched the destruction unfold in front of him he would've never believed it.

"Hey, gimme one," Aomine said lazily as he reached across the table.

"No way!" Kagami snatched the burger Aomine was reaching for and began devouring it. "These are mine," he said after a hard gulp."

"You got so many, you aren't going to miss one," Aomine reached again but had his hand slapped away.

"I bought these many because I  _wanted_  this many. You should've gotten more if you were hungry," Kagami hmphed and brought the tray closer to him.

"Che, stingy glutton," Aomine mumbled and took a sip of his drink.

"Don't be such a baby," Kagami shot back as he picked up the second to last burger.

Aomine just furrowed his brow at him and stuck his tongue out.

At that, Kagami cupped his hand to his face, his shoulders shaking a little as he muffled his laughter.

"Now what's so funny?" Aomine scrunched his eyebrows, trying to give a menacing glare, but it didn't seem to be working very well.

"I just... can't believe you just stuck your tongue out at me," Kagami continued to snicker.

"!" At that moment Aomine realized how silly that must've been and could feel a heat of embarrassment growing on his face. "Its not even that funny, shut up!" He yelled.

"Yeah it is!" Kagami continued to rile up Aomine.

"Whatever, I'm done eating so I'm leaving!" He stood up abruptly and made to swiftly go out the exit.

"Hey, hey, wait!" Kagami called after him, standing up and grabbed his shoulder

"What!?" Aomine turned around and asked with a grumpy face.

Kagami held out a burger towards Aomine. "I'm full so you can have the last one."

Aomine looked down at the burger and let out a 'tsk'. "I don't want your stupid burgers anymore." He tried to turn back but Kagami's grip held him in place.

"Just take it! You're so stubborn," Kagami shoved it towards Aomine's chest. "Its just going to go to waste if you don't eat it."

"Fine! If that'll get you to leave me alone," Aomine snatched it and simultaneously felt the grip on his shoulder release itself. "I'm going, later," he said with his back facing Kagami.

"See you tomorrow," Kagami replied, and it still seemed like he was making fun of Aomine and that irked him just a bit.

"Stupid Kagami..." Aomine mumbled as he stormed down the street holding the burger in his hand.

Aomine could admit that it didn't take much to rile him up, but there was something about Kagami that just made him lose his cool at the drop of a hat. Maybe it was how Kagami seemed to be the same kind of hot-headed person, or maybe it was that one-track minded determination, or the fact that he seemed like an overly simple person underneath that huge facade.

But that was one of the very few times Aomine actually would consider 'hanging out' with someone. Even with Kuroko they didn't do it very much. They did go to Maji a few times but it was usually just to stop by to get Kuroko his vanilla shake that he loved so much. In fact, he never really just played basketball with one person as much as he had these previous months with Kagami. Again, the only other person he had ever done that with was Kuroko, but he and Kagami were so different. Kuroko wasn't nearly as aggressive and assertive as Kagami, there weren't many times where playing basketball with Kuroko got very heated, but with Kagami that was all the time.

And Aomine could almost go so far as saying... he found it enjoyable? If he didn't, there probably would be no way he would even consider spending his week off helping Kagami with his basketball. It made sense, though, because if he wanted to play against Kagami again on the court then he'd have to be at the top of his game. There was no way he wanted to play against Kagami while he was doing everything half-assed. The guy was annoying, but if he really disliked him he wouldn't bother being around him so much to help him.

Well, okay, it wasn't such a big deal to admit that Kagami wasn't such a bad guy. So he shouldn't get so hung up on it, right? Yeah, Kagami was just a worthy rival. It'd be normal to want your rival to actually do his best and give you a challenge.

Aomine unwrapped the burger in his hand and took a bite. Maybe it was okay to admit that being around Kagami Taiga was alright to pass the time.

* * *

Just like every day this week, Kagami had come right on time to start their practice. It was the last day until school started again so Aomine couldn't help but wonder if they were going to continue this routine after today. Maybe instead of their one-on-ones they could, but Kagami was pretty adamant about trying to win against him one day.

After a bit of warming up, Aomine made a suggestion, "How about we just have a one-on-one today?"

"Oh, that sounds great, I'm kind of tired of just the drills," Kagami seemed to be excited at the idea.

"Lets start then," Aomine said and both of them headed out to the middle of the court.

Just as they were nearly ready to begin, a ringing sound came from the edge of the court. Kagami turned his head and seemed to hesitate in place.

"You gonna get that?" Aomine asked.

"... Yeah, I never get calls at this time so maybe its important. Sorry," Kagami ran over to his bag and fished out his phone.

"Hello... huh, Kise?" Kagami was a bit surprised to hear the blonde's voice on the phone.

He checked his screen to see the number and it was apparently from Kuroko's phone.

"Kagamicchi! I-I need help..." Kise sounded a bit worried, that alone made Kagami a little anxious.

"What is it?" He asked in a serious tone.

"Um, I really need some medicine for Kurokocchi but I don't want to leave him by himself... The only person I could think of asking was you so I called your number on Kurokocchi's phone," Kise said in a quiet voice.

"Medicine? Is he okay?"

"Yeah... He's just running a little bit of a fever and, er, in a bit of pain. You see, uh..." Kise paused for a moment. "W-We decided to play some basketball yesterday and Kurokocchi had a nasty fall... He said he was okay but this morning he woke up in pain..."

"Okay... I'll go get some medicine then," Kagami found the story a little weird, but worrying about Kuroko's well-being came first. He knew that Kise and him were dating so it sounded like Kise was trying to not sound suspicious about their relationship. Kuroko probably didn't tell Kise that he had told Kagami about it.

"Thanks, Kagamicchi. Oh and we're at Kurokocchi's place," Kise nearly mumbled.

"Alright... See you soon then," Kagami hung up the phone and turned around to face Aomine. "Sorry, Kuroko needs my help so I have to go."

"Huh? What's wrong?" Aomine asked, looking a bit confused.

"Err," Kagami wasn't sure if Aomine knew about Kise and Kuroko's relationship... and he did make a promise not to tell anyone. "He just really needs me for something..."

"Should I go too?" Aomine took a step forward.

"No!" Kagami shouted and Aomine froze in place, "Uhh, only I can help... Sorry, I really have to get going. Uh, I'll see you later," and without having to sound even more awkward Kagami bolted off the court and ran to the nearest convenience store.

He quickly got some painkillers and a fever reducer and made his way over to Kuroko's place.

"Kagamicchi!" Kise looked relieved as he answered the door and made room for him to walk in. "I'm really sorry for calling you so suddenly..." He was still talking in a quiet voice.

"Its fine, is Kuroko doing okay?" Kagami handed the bag over to Kise.

"Yeah... he's just kind of sore..." Kise rubbed his neck and his eyes darted away from Kagami.

"Must've been a pretty bad fall?" Kagami asked as he watched Kise open the packages.

"Err, yeah..." Kise nodded. "Fell pretty hard on his back..."

"Jeeze, you guys must've been playing pretty rough then."

Kise nearly spilled the bottle over on the counter but caught it just in time. "Haha, yeah, I guess we were..." He gave a nervous laugh and went to fetch a glass of water.

"Kise-kun? Are you talking to someone?" Kuroko's faint voice could be heard from down the hall.

"Ah, I thought he was asleep still!" Kise whispered and looked slightly panicked. "Ah, no, its just the TV!" Kise said in a louder voice. He went back to a whisper, "Sorry, Kagamicchi, its complicated but he'd be so mad if he knew you were here..."

"I thought I heard another voice though... Kagami-kun!?"

Both Kagami and Kise turned to look over by the kitchen entrance to see Kuroko standing there a little dumbfounded.

"Ah! K-Kurokocchi! You should be in bed!" In a blind panic, Kise seemed to try and block Kuroko's view of Kagami.

"Why is Kagami-kun here?" Kuroko looked over at Kise, with a serious look on his face.

"I-I didn't want to leave you but you needed medicine! I looked everywhere and couldn't find the right kind, s-so I called Kagamicchi to bring it over... Please don't be mad at me!" Kise looked like he was nearly about to cry.

Kuroko let out a huge sigh, "Its fine. Nothing can be done about it now... ah!" Kuroko grabbed his lower back and winced in pain.

"See, you shouldn't be up!" Kise ran over to Kuroko.

"Are you alright?" Kagami asked.

"Yes, I'm fine, Kagami-kun, thank you for bringing the medicine," Kuroko leaned a bit on Kise.

"I'm taking you back to bed..." Kise said and assisted him back to the bedroom.

Kagami grabbed the medicine and the water and followed the two. He watched Kise help Kuroko onto the bed then handed the medicine to his friend.

"That fall must've been pretty bad, maybe you should go see a doctor?" Kagami suggested as Kuroko swallowed his pills.

"Fall?" Kuroko asked, looking confused.

"Y-Yes! You remember falling yesterday, right Kurokocchi?" Kise said quickly. "When we were playing basketball? Remember?"

"Basketball... right..." Kuroko looked slightly unamused.

"Is there anything else you need?" Kagami asked.

"No, I'm fine. If there is something else Kise-kun will get it for me, right?" Kuroko narrowed his eyes at the blonde.

"Yes..." Kise lowered his head like a puppy that just got scolded.

"I guess I'll get going then and leave you two alone. I'll let coach know about your injury," Kagami said.

"W-Well, maybe I should go too then? I mean, we don't need to be 'left alone' and if Kurokocchi is doing alright..."

"Kise-kun, you're taking responsibility and staying here," Kuroko said with firm tone.

Again, Kise looked like he was being scolded more than anything.

"And you can stop putting on that horrendous act of yours, Kagami-kun knows about our relationship," Kuroko sighed.

"Huh!? He does!?" Kise whipped his head towards Kagami and looked at him wide-eyed.

"Ah, yeah," Kagami scratched his head, "Might be a little late, but, congratulations?"

"Kagamicchi, you're really okay with us being together?" Kise looked at him in awe.

"Uh, yeah, why not?" Kagami shrugged, "Kuroko seems happy and so do you and that's all that matters."

"Kagamicchi!" Kise cried out as he stood up and hugged Kagami.

"Hah..." Kagami awkwardly patted Kise's back a bit and waited for the hug to be over.

"Thank you for supporting us," Kise sniffled a bit and grinned.

"Yeah," Kagami smiled back and looked at Kuroko who had a small grin himself.

After saying his goodbyes, Kagami left the house and headed back to his own home. It seemed silly for Kise to act so grateful at first, but after thinking on it, it was probably a very emotional thing for Kagami to simply say that he approved of their relationship.

He couldn't imagine the pressure those two probably had having to keep it secret. Not only because they were both males, but because of Kise's modeling career. To know that even a single person supports them being together probably means a lot to them. Because that's one less person they don't have to hide from.

Kagami was actually a little jealous, though. Despite all of that they still made the decision to be together. It must mean they really do love each other. It wasn't something that Kagami really longed to have at this point in his life, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't wonder what kind of person he would end up with to make him feel like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It seems like with every chapter these two get closer but they are still just as stubborn as ever. But at least they're starting to learn a lot about each other... and realize that maybe this other guy ain't so bad! So I hope you enjoyed this chapter and enjoyed yet another KiKuro moment, ehe. I don't want them to become too prominent in the story, but their relationship has it's purpose.
> 
> Also if you haven't heard, **I've started a poll!** I want to know what oneshot my readers want to see next, so I'm asking all of you! The link to the poll is [here](https://www.murvey.com/s?546bef5c9c3e57c94a00023b), or you can find a link to it on my profile. You have until December 10th to vote and the winner will be posted December 24th.
> 
> And once again, thank you so much for reading this story. See you next time! :*


	11. Chapter 11

Practice was over for the day and both Kuroko and Kagami did their usual habit of staying a bit afterward for extra practice. Sometimes they did this along with a couple of fellow teammates, but today it was just the two of them.

Kuroko seemed to be feeling better after a few days. Kagami worried about Kuroko's injury being a serious one, but he was playing the same as always.

"Good thing you healed up quick, huh?" Kagami commented as they grabbed their stuff from their lockers.

"Ah, I'm sorry you had to be involved with that," Kuroko said quietly.

"No, its fine," Kagami shrugged, "Kise seemed pretty worried about your fall so much so that he couldn't leave you alone, so I was okay with getting your medicine."

Kagami closed his locker and slung his bag over his shoulder. He looked over at his friend to see him standing in place and giving him a slightly judgmental and slightly confused look.

"...What is it?" Kagami arched an eyebrow.

"You don't have to put the act up anymore, Kagami-kun. I already got over my embarrassment of the situation," Kuroko shut his locker as well.

"Falling isn't that embarrassing," Kagami scratched his head, "I've taken nasty falls plenty times. It always happens eventually."

"Kagami-kun... you... really thought I just fell...?" Kuroko paused and shook his head. "Never mind, lets go."

"Huh?" Kagami was even more confused as Kuroko began to walk out of the locker room. "What do you mean by that?"

"Its nothing, Kagami-kun, its best if you don't know," Kuroko sighed.

"But now I'm curious! You didn't actually fall?" Kagami continued to pry as they walked out onto the school grounds.

"If you don't get it by now I don't think you should know," Kuroko continued.

Kagami thought for a moment. Thought pretty hard. Probably more than he should've. But he still didn't understand what Kuroko was getting at. And he felt a little stupid for not figuring it out...

Kagami let out an audible grumble.

"Kise-kun and I were together most of Golden Week, that's all I have to say," Kuroko's face reddened slightly.

"Fine, fine, I won't say anything more," Kagami didn't want to make Kuroko uncomfortable about it so it was probably best to drop it. He  _did_  say he was embarrassed over the situation.

The two were nearly at the public basketball court after a bit more of walking.

"Going to meet up with Aomine-kun?" Kuroko asked.

"Ah, yep," Kagami replied simply.

"Alright, I'm going this way. I'm... meeting up with Kise-kun at the station," Kuroko said shyly.

"Oh, have fun on your date then," Kagami teased and ruffled his hair.

"Its not a date, we're just going out to eat," Kuroko tried pushing away Kagami with his arm.

"Yeah right! The guy came all the way out here to see you," Kagami poked at Kuroko's arm.

"Well you and Aomine-kun meet here every day - aren't those dates then?" Kuroko shot back.

"Eh? No they aren't!" Kagami's face reddened a bit. "We're just playing basketball! We aren't like you and Kise who are actually going out!"

"I'm joking, Kagami-kun. Calm down," Kuroko seemed to be holding back a laugh.

"You jerk," Kagami ruffled Kuroko's hair again.

"Ah," Kuroko was defending himself from Kagami messing up his hair when he heard his phone go off. "Kise-kun's at the station so I have to go. See you tomorrow," Kuroko waved as he ran off.

Kagami waved back and approached the court that they apparently had already arrived at. He could already see that Aomine was there.

"Kuroko didn't want to join?"

And apparently he had noticed the both of them as well.

"Ah, no, he had, uh," Kagami thought of the first thing that came to his head. "He had some homework to do."

"Isin't his house the other way though?" Aomie raised an eyebrow.

"Er," Kagami looked off in the direction of where Kuroko went. It definitely was not in the direction of his house. "Maybe he wanted to go somewhere else and do it?" Kagami shrugged. "Doesn't really matter, does it? Let's just play."

"Hmph, whatever," Aomine shrugged.

Keeping Kise and Kuroko's relationship from Aomine was starting to get a little difficult. Kagami definitely wasn't a good liar and Aomine was obviously an overbearing person. If he ever got suspicious things might get a little hairy. Kagami hoped that one day he'd be comfortable to tell Aomine himself.

Golden Week had gotten them into the habit of warming up a bit before actually starting their one-on-one. They would casually take turns tossing the ball into the net to and maybe even chat a bit. It was strange to think that this time last year they would either be at each other's throats or completely ignore each other, but now they were actually quite friendly. Of course they were still never lacking with their insults.

"So, Tetsu seems alright," Aomine spoke up after sinking a clean shot in the net. "The other day seemed like an emergency and neither of you told me what was up."

"Oh! Yeah, about that," Kagami dribbled his ball in place. "Kuroko was just a little sick, that's all."

Aomine furrowed his brow a bit, "That doesn't seem like an emergency."

"Well, he sounded pretty bad on the phone and he didn't have any medicine and his parents weren't home, so," Kagami avoided looking at Aomine.

"I guess that's good enough reason..." Aomine commented, spinning the ball on his hand.

"Yeah, and he's feeling a lot better now," Kagami scratched his neck.

He figured telling Aomine another white lie wouldn't hurt since he himself wasn't even sure what was going on with that whole situation. Luckily he seemed to have managed to avoid it just fine.

* * *

After another tight game of one-on-one, Aomine winning by a measly one point, the two headed to Maji Burger as was now their usual thing.

"Y'know there's this one annoying freshman that joined the club that keeps asking me for dating advice," Aomine complained with a mouth full of food. "He thinks just because he's in the club he'll be getting some tail. And it ain't like I'm going to reveal any of my secrets."

"Err, what do you tell him, then?" Kagami felt like rolling his eyes.

"Just vague as hell stuff," Aomine swallowed his food. "Then I tell him to beat it because he's being annoying."

"Wow, you're such a great role model," Kagami said with a flat tone.

"Shut up," Aomine scoffed. "Not like you know the first thing about dating."

"S-So what?!" Kagami retorted. "I bet you're just all talk yourself."

"Psh, I've been the ace on my basketball team since middle school. You don't think I have ladies crawling after me?" Aomine said with a snarky tone.

"Uhg, whatever," Kagami crossed his arms. "Fine, if you're such a dating expert answer this then."

"Shoot," Aomine's attention was all on Kagami.

"Say... you had this friend that was dating someone," Kagami began. "And this friend hurt themselves but they wouldn't tell you how they did it because they were embarrassed, and the only thing they'll say is that they spent a lot of time that week with their boyfriend... or girlfriend that week. What would you think of that?"

Kagami silently apologized to Kuroko for indirectly telling Aomine something about his and Kise's relationship. But if he was right, Aomine might be too dumb to figure out it was them.

He looked up to see a pleased grin on Aomine's face.

"Uh, what?" Kagami asked, wondering why Aomine wasn't saying anything.

Aomine let out a loud laugh, "Was that supposed to be difficult to figure out?" He said with a few chuckles.

"Wh-What do you mean?" Kagami wondered if Aomine really had figured it out so easily.

"Its so simple," Aomine leaned back in the booth casually. "They went at it like rabbits, yeah? Friend probably has a back ache or hip ache or something, right?"

"H-Huh!?" Kagami blurted out in shock.

"What, you didn't know the answer to your own question?" Aomine raised an eyebrow.

"No! Its just... Maybe there's some other reason..." Kagami mumbled, he felt his ears heat up.

"What other reason could there be? If that person hurt themselves any other way they wouldn't be embarrassed about it to the point they couldn't tell you, right? The only reason they wouldn't want to tell you is because they probably got nasty in the sack and got a little rough," Aomine wore a devious grin.

"I... guess that makes sense," Kagami replied quietly.

He was in shock just thinking that Kuroko and Kise possibly could've done something like that. He guessed if you dated someone doing something like that was always a possibility, but... Kuroko was his friend and... Kagami didn't even know how two men could...

"Your face is kinda red," Aomine teased. "Don't tell me that this is a true story about one of the guys on your team or something."

"No!" Kagami replied instantly. "It, uh, it was my cousin... they started dating someone a few months back, so..." Kagami would feel awful if Aomine suspected Kuroko at all.

"Huh," Aomine took a sip of his drink. "Sounds like your cousin's pretty lucky."

Thankfully Aomine fell for yet another lie.

"Yeah, guess so," Kagami said taking a bite of one of his burgers and trying to get any un-pure thoughts out of his head.

"You don't seem like the type of guy that's interested in that sort of stuff," Aomine commented, taking a sip of his drink.

"Why's that?" Kagami furrowed his brow.

"Dunno," Aomine shrugged his shoulders. "You seem like all you care about is basketball."

"So what?" Kagami grumbled. "Dating and... stuff like that isn't as big of a deal as people make it out to be."

"Hmm..." Aomine studied Kagami's expressions - avoiding eye contact, ears reddening to nearly the color of his hair. "So can I make the assumption that you haven't dated anyone? Let alone had sex?"

"That's none of your business!" Kagami retorted. So what if he was a virgin and never went on a single date in his life? There were never any girls he particularly liked and he wasn't going to waste his time on dating someone he didn't have feelings for.

Aomine let out a laugh, "I already know the answer anyway."

"Oh yeah? How about you then, huh?" Kagami shot back, giving Aomine a bit of a glare.

Aomine leaned back in his seat, looking a lot more relaxed than the redhead in front of him. "Lets just say there's a few girls I could call up right now and they'd come straight to my room."

Kagami scoffed, "Like those easy fangirls of yours is anything to brag about. Its not like its much of a challenge..."

"Shut up," Aomine tossed a fry at Kagami. "Its not like I go sleeping around with anyone. I'm just  _saying_  I could if I wanted to."

Kagami glanced up at Aomine, "Really? You don't have some different big-boobed chick in your bedroom every week?"

"No! What kind of guy do you think I am?" Aomine glared at Kagami. "And how do you know I like big boobs?"

"Oh, Kuroko told me," Kagami picked up the fry that fell in his lap and popped it in his mouth.

"Tsk," Aomine crossed his arms. "Tetsu better not be telling you more than he needs to about me."

"What, is there something embarrassing that he has on you?" Now it was Kagami's turn to tease.

"No, its just he might twist his words to make the story seem worse than it is. He's like that."

"Well now I'm curious," Kagami smirked, "Guess I'll ask him about some things then."

"Not if I can help it," Aomine glowered and pulled out his phone, pushing a few buttons.

"What are you doing?" Kagami asked.

"Telling him not to tell you any damn stories," Aomine replied, looking down at his phone.

"Psh, Kuroko will tell me anyway," Kagami was now the one to take his phone out.

"Hey! What are you telling him?" Aomine pressed 'send' on his phone and saw that Kagami was typing away.

With a last click Kagami looked up from his phone. "I asked him to tell me the most embarrassing story about you that he can think of. So lets see who he'll listen to," he gave a triumphant smile.

"Like hell!" Aomine went back to typing on his phone and sent his message. "I just asked him to send me an embarrassing story about YOU." Aomine also added for Kuroko to not tell Kagami anything.

"Yeah right, Kuroko wouldn't do that..." Kagami said it, but he was a bit unsure as he fiddled with his phone in his hand. Kuroko was a bit... sly sometimes.

Kagami hesitated for a moment and began to type out another message to Kuroko - 'Don't you dare tell Aomine anything about me!'

As he set his phone down, it seemed like it was a standstill as to who would get a message first. Neither of them knew exactly what secrets Kuroko had on them. Both of them spent a lot of time with him and there were probably many moments they didn't notice him there until much later. So who knows what he could've seen without their knowledge.

Suddenly a phone started going off - then another only a second later. Both of the aces looked at each other and checked their phones at the same time.

'Would you two please leave me alone? I'm busy. If you don't stop I'm telling your teams and the rest of the Miracles your most embarrassing secrets.'

Both of them looked up at each other and seemed a little frightened - did Kuroko really have something bad on them?

Then they both felt a sort of sense of how silly they were both acting. Kagami let out a small chuckle first and Aomine followed afterward. Soon they were both laughing heartily and probably loud enough to get a few stares. It took them a bit to quiet back down again from their laughter.

"Well I guess that's that," Aomine said, a slight smile still on his face.

"Yeah, I guess so," Kagami added, letting out a short huff.

* * *

Lunch period was nearly over and Aomine figured he should probably spend some time in class rather than lounge on the roof all day. He lazily got up and walked back into the building with a yawn. Maybe he should spend more time in class anyway if he was planning and not having his mother worry and his father angry.

He casually slid the door open to his classroom and found his seat. He dug his phone from his pocket and noticed he had a new message. Sitting down, how opened up the message and read it.

'Can't meet up today. Sorry.'

Aomine furrowed his brow, seeing the sender was from Kagami.

'Why not?' He typed out and sent. He looked down at his phone until getting a message in return.

'Doing something w/ Kuroko. Kinda important.'

Aomine let out a low grumble and stuffed his phone back into his pocket without replying.

There was no way Aomine would go as far as saying he was 'jealous' of Kuroko, but Kagami seemed to get along with his former teammate really well. Better than he ever did. He also didn't want to admit that he was enjoying playing basketball with Kagami after school and even hanging out a bit afterward. Well... he could admit it just a little...

"You look a little down, Aomine-kun," a feminine voice spoke up from beside him.

"Huh? Oh, Maya," Aomine gave her a glance. "No, just bored is all."

"Hmm, I didn't see you in class all day so you must've been skipping again," She tsked.

"Didn't feel like coming," he replied simply.

"Of course," she giggled a bit. "Well, do you feel like doing something with me today?"

"Um..." Aomine looked over at Maya who had hooked her arms around his.

"Aww, come on! You keep saying you're busy - can't we just get a bite to eat or something?" She pouted.

Aomine thought for a moment, but it was hard to think with her clinging tighter and her breasts pushing against his arms.

Well, Kagami did cancel on him today... And a hot girl with huge boobs from his class has basically been begging him to spend time with her. Honestly, he wasn't sure why he'd put it off so long to begin with.

"Alright, alright, I'll do something with you today," he finally replied.

"Yay!" She bounced up and down in excitement. "I'll wait for you outside the gym after your practice, kay?"

"Yeah, sure," Aomine said, his tone a bit flat.

The bell sounded signaling the end of lunch. Maya smiled and walked happily back to her seat.

Aomine sighed and directed his attention to the window that looked out over the school grounds. He wasn't sure why the thought of spending the evening with Maya didn't seem all that exciting. He loved girls, he loved boobs - but knowing he wasn't going to the public basketball court bummed him out a bit.

' _Come on, Daiki. Hanging out with a hot girl is a lot better than hanging out with that sweaty idiot, right?'_  He asked himself.

The problem was, he couldn't quite answer that question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First post of the new year - Happy New Year! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday. I was a bit busy but managed to get out this chapter. ^^  
> Ah, I can feel Aomine and Kagami becoming closer and closer. And whether Aomine wants to admit it or not, I think he's one to get jealous easily, hehe.  
> Also you might have noticed I finally changed the rating to Mature. I hope you don't mind! But I feel like this fic will eventually need a higher rating.
> 
> Thanks once again for reading and joining me for another year! See you next time. :*


	12. Chapter 12

Kuroko seemed to have been anxious all day. He never told Kagami what was so important that he needed to talk to him after school, so he had no clue what could make the usual calm and collected shadow of his like this. Even during practice he didn't seem like he was all there. Kagami figured missing out on a session with Aomine wouldn't be much of a big deal so he could see why Kuroko was acting so strange.

Since Kuroko insisted they have their talk at Kagami's place, the walk home was pretty quiet and Kuroko seemed lost in thought.

"So, mind telling me whats up now?" Kagami asked, sitting down on the couch next to Kuroko and handing him a bottle of water.

Kuroko let out a short sigh and squeezed the water bottle in his hands. "I was out with Kise-kun the other day," he began. "And... after spending most of the day with him I realized someone was following us."

"Following you?" Kagami repeated, cocking an eyebrow.

"Yes... he had a camera - he was probably paparazzi," Kuroko looked down at his lap and continued to grip the water bottle. "I don't know how long he was following us... but I'm worried..."

Kuroko had told Kagami that the thing he feared most was the general public finding out about he and Kise's relationship. Something that might not be such a big deal if it weren't for the fact that Kise was a pretty popular model.

"Well, it would just seem like it was two friends hanging out, right?" Kagami tried to reassure him.

"Maybe, but you know how Kise-kun is... he doesn't give much personal space," Kuroko sighed again.

"But this happened the other day, right? If it was some big scandal I'm sure it'd be all over the news by now," Kagami tried again.

"Yes, I know, I don't think anything will come of it," Kuroko replied.

Kagami looked at Kuroko confused. If everything was alright, what was he so worried about?

"But it could happen again..." Kuroko continued.

"You two are former teammates - of course its logical to see you two together," Kagami leaned back on the couch. "As long as you two just avoid the PDA, yeah?"

"How long will we have to do that, though? How long will we have to pretend we're just friends hanging out? How long until they follow us back to mine or Kise's house? What if they realize that our relationship is a little too intimate for 'just friends'?" Kuroko finally looked over at Kagami, a grave expression on his face.

Kagami's face dropped a bit after seeing the expression Kuroko was making. He looked sad.

"Maybe its best if we just break up..." Kuroko said quietly.

"What are you saying?" Kagami nearly shouted.

"But if I put Kise-kun's job and future in jeopardy-"

"Isn't Kise prepared for that?" Kagami interrupted. "Kise might be a simple-minded guy, but he's not stupid. He's well aware of the risk he's taking to be with you."

Kuroko's eyes widened a bit at Kagami's words.

"Kise hasn't talked with you about breaking up, has he?"

"No..." Kuroko said quietly.

"So would you really want to break his heart, knowing that he's already aware that he's risking his job and reputation in the business to be with you? And you know it'd be a big blow for you as well,"

Kagami wasn't sure why he felt so strongly about this. Maybe because Kuroko was one of his best friends and he could even consider Kise a good friend - but Kuroko feeling like he should have his life be dictated by other's opinions seemed... wrong. If either he or Kise were female, it probably wouldn't be such a big deal. It was unfair.

Kuroko inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. "You're very honest, Kagami-kun. Thank you."

"Well... that's just what I believe," Kagami said a lot more calmly. "You know Kise would cry if you broke up with him."

Kuroko chuckled softly, "He probably would."

"If you guys ever get found out... I know Kise is probably prepared to deal with it," Kagami added.

"You're right, I... really don't want to end our relationship," Kuroko sighed. "I suppose the whole situation shook me up so much that I didn't think about it as much as I should've,"

"Yeah! I would've thought something like this is no big deal for you," Kagami ruffled Kuroko's hair a bit before standing up. Love sometimes doesn't make you think straight, or so Kagami had heard. "I'll make dinner so stay for a bit."

Kuroko nodded with a smile.

* * *

Dinner with Maya was alright. He guessed. Aomine ended up going to a family diner with her and she seemed to blab on about things he didn't care about. Once in a while he'd nod as if he was listening or say something like 'huh' or 'is that so...'. She wasn't a bad person and she was nice on the eyes, but that was about it. Otherwise, she was a person that Aomine wouldn't think to bother with.

But somehow she was really good at roping him in to do things, and somehow he ended up agreeing on taking her somewhere next Saturday. He didn't know how she did that so easily. Sometimes women were scary...

The sun began to set as he and Kagami were wrapping up their session on the court. It seemed like the played twice as hard since they didn't meet the previous day, so all of that physical activity made Aomine even more hungry.

"Wanna head to Maji?" Aomine asked, as it became a pretty normal thing for both of them by now.

"Ah, not today," Kagami replied, wiping his sweat with a towel.

"Eh, why not? Is it Tetsu again?" Aomine grumbled.

"Huh? Kuroko?" Kagami arched an eyebrow. "No, I just can't afford to eat out every day," he swung his bag over his shoulder.

Oh, that was stupid, Aomine thought. He just went and assumed Kagami was busy with Kuroko again.

"Che," Aomine sucked his teeth. "And I went and told my mom not to bother with dinner tonight too."

"You can still go," Kagami shrugged.

"Well..." Aomine came dangerously close to saying something along the lines of, ' _I don't want to go if you're not going'_. "Wait, what are you going to do for dinner then?"

"I'm going to cook, of course," Kagami started walking towards the gate.

"...Cook? You cook?" Aomine was a little surprised to hear Kagami actually cooked.

"Yeah, is that such a surprise?" Kagami huffed. "My parents were always out and I live alone now, so of course I learned to cook for myself."

Aomine thought a bit to himself as he walked next to Kagami.

"I'll just eat at your place then."

"Huh!?" Kagami stopped in place and looked at Aomine. "Don't go and invite yourself over!"

"Why not?" Aomine furrowed his brow.

"W-Well..." Kagami stumbled over his words. "I dunno, you've never been over and... and you just expect me to cook for you!"

Aomine shrugged Kagami's words off, "Well if I go today you can't say I've never been over, right?"

Aomine could've swore he heard Kagami gritting his teeth as he started walking again. It seemed like he was having a hard time protesting over Aomine's bold suggestion.

Kuroko went over to Kagami's place all the time, so why couldn't he? Albeit, Kagami and Kuroko were friends... What exactly was Kagami to him? Rivals, definitely, but rivals don't usually play basketball with each other nearly every day and have dinner together afterward.

"Fine," he heard Kagami grunt beside him. "But don't expect me to cook for you all the time."

* * *

"I'm... kinda surprised," Aomine said as he looked around the clean and minimal apartment.

"About what?" Kagami tossed his bag on the couch as he walked towards the kitchen

"I dunno, I guess I didn't expect your place to be so nice and clean," Aomine shrugged.

"You sayin' you think I'm filthy or something?" Kagami growled.

"Tsk," Aomine clicked his tongue "Don't go getting all defensive! I'm just saying that guys our age aren't really the cleanliest when it comes to housework."

"Well, your room might look like a disaster, but I like keeping me living space clean," Kagami retorted as he grabbed a few things from the fridge.

"Che, whatever," Aomine grumbled. So what if his room was a little messy?

"Go sit down and watch TV or something. The least you could do is not bother me when I'm cooking when you so boldly invited yourself over," Kagami nagged.

"Jeeze, is that any way to treat a guest?" Aomine complained, but seemed to comply with Kagami's statement anyway as he shuffled over to the couch.

"When its you - yeah!" He heard Kagami shout from the kitchen.

Aomine let out a short sigh as he sat down and picked up the remote. Even if they were constantly at each other's throats, Aomine had pretty much asked Kagami if he could come over and now Kagami was making dinner. Their relationship was weird, whatever it was.

Their conversation ceased as Kagami worked in the kitchen. It wasn't too long until Aomine started to smell something enticing. He thought Kagami's version of 'cooking' might've been sticking some instant ramen in the microwave, but it seemed like he might actually know what he's doing.

The drama on TV was boring and all Aomine could think about was when the food would be ready as he felt his hunger grow even more from the smell wafting from the kitchen.

"Here," Kagami seemed to be done cooking as Aomine had a large plate thrust in front of him.

"Thanks..." Aomine said, grabbing the plate that seemed to have a huge serving of fried rice and gyoza.

"I didn't have many ingredients so this is all you're getting, alright?" Kagami said as he sat on the other end of the couch with his plate.

Aomine looked down at his mountainous portion. "Think I'll be fine."

The smell was great though. The food must be decent at least. Then he took a bite of the rice.

"!" Aomine froze as the taste immediately hit his tongue.

Kagami seemed to have noticed his reaction and looked over. "What is it?"

"Why is this so good!?" Aomine nearly shouted.

"Were you expecting it to be bad, you bastard?" Kagami shot back with a glare.

"I dunno, but I didn't expect it to be like this," Aomine picked up one of the gyoza and popped in his mouth. "What the hell, this is good too! This isn't the frozen kind!"

Kagami sighed, "Of course it isn't."

Aomine took a few more bites of the fried rice. Yep, he wasn't being deceived, the food Kagami made was, for some reason, amazingly good.

For two guys with big appetites, one with probably a bigger one than usual, it didn't take long for them to finish their food.

Aomine let out a burp as he set the cleaned plate on the coffee table in front of the couch. Kagami clicked his tongue in disapproval but said nothing as he grabbed Aomine plate and got up to go back to the kitchen.

"Hey, that was pretty good," Aomine said, patting his stomach.

"... Thanks, I guess," Kagami mumbled, barely loud enough for him to hear.

Maybe Aomine would try to think of ways to make himself a nuisance more often.

* * *

With the close approach of summer vacation, Riko had already started her plans with training camp. It seemed like it would be pretty similar to the previous year, so Kagami could only wonder if Shuutoku would also get the same idea. Well, maybe that'd be good. They did lose to them during Interhigh, after all. It might be beneficial to practice against them again.

"Since I'm such a nice coach, I'll give you guys a week to tell me when good times are to hold the camp. I know some of you might have family vacations and such planned, so I'll try to work around those," Riko announced after practice that day.

Kagami noticed a few of the guys go up to her, probably since they already knew about their summer plans. Kagami didn't really have any himself, and he wasn't planning to go to America, so it didn't matter when the training camp was held. But he couldn't help but notice Kuroko was one of the people that went up to Riko

"You going on vacation with your family, Kuroko?" Kagami asked once they finished up in the locker room and exited the gym.

"Not quite, I'm going with Kise and his family to a beach resort for a week," Kuroko replied casually.

"Eh? Really?" Kagami was a little surprised to hear 'beach resort', but he guessed Kise and maybe his other family members probably made good money. "Guess you're feeling better about the whole paparazzi situation?" he tried saying quieter.

"Mhm," Kuroko nodded. "Apparently Kise's parents said he could bring a friend and he seemed really excited about it so I agreed," Kuroko explained.

"Wow, that's pretty nice. I bet you guys wish it was just the two of you, huh?" Kagami made the comment offhandedly, but he felt the piercing stare of his friend.

"Kagami-kun, don't make such inappropriate statements," Kuroko said as if he was scolding a child.

"Th-That's not what I meant!" Kagami's face reddened slightly when he realized what the implications of that statement could be taken as.

"I don't know, you've been hanging around Aomine-kun a lot lately, so he might've rubbed off on you and turned you into a pervert," Kuroko crossed his arms.

"I'm not a pervert!" Kagami retorted. "And no way would Aomine be able to rub off his perverseness on me!"

"I wonder..." Kuroko mumbled.

"Hey! What is that supposed to mean?" Kagami ground his teeth.

"Judging by the path we're walking, you're heading to the court, right?" Kuroko asked.

"Don't change the subject!" Kagami shouted.

"Ah." Kuroko stopped in place and continued looking forward.

Kagami turned his attention from Kuroko to what he was looking at to see the familiar Aomine, but today it seemed he had company. And that company seemed to have invited himself to play a game of one-on-one.

"I told him you two come out here all the time, but I didn't expect him to actually show up himself," Kuroko sighed.

"Kurokocchi!" The blonde ran up to the fence gate once he noticed Kuroko's presence, completely forgetting about the game he was in the middle of. Which was weird. But maybe since the end of Winter Cup and the fact that they were dating allowed Kise to notice Kuroko better than before? Who knew.

"What are you doing here?" Kuroko asked without greeting him.

"Eh? Well I hardly ever get to see Aominecchi and Kagamicchi lately so I figured I'd drop by before meeting up with you," Kise explained.

"Hey, why'd you stop for a conversation?" Aomine scolded.

"Kurokocchi is here," Kise said simply.

"So? It could've waited," Aomine huffed.

Kise seemed like he wanted to say something, but held back. Kagami guessed that the two of them weren't necessarily ready to let Aomine in about their relationship. That made sense, Kagami supposed. Aomine seemed like the type that would be really hit or miss when learning about two of his former teammates in a homosexual relationship with each other. He could imagine Aomine being absolutely disgusted, but he could also picture him just shrugging his shoulders and going ' _So what?'_. So it probably wasn't something they were ready to risk just quite yet.

"Well, I have to get going now anyway, I've got something planned with Kurokocchi," Kise said rather coolly. Maybe his acting skills improved a bit.

"Huh? Since when did you two hang out like that?" Aomine raised an eyebrow.

"What are you talking about? Kurokocchi and I have been best friends since middle school," Kise said with confidence.

"No we haven't," Kuroko sighed. Kise pouted a bit. "Your usual partner is here, so you aren't alone. We'll be going now."

"Saying 'partner' sounds a bit weird," Aomine grumbled as Kagami walked out on the court.

"Lets get started,  _partner_ ," Kagami said with a smirk.

"Shut up," Aomine jabbed at Kagami's arm.

* * *

Aomine didn't want to be there. At all. Yet he was there anyway, and it wasn't even Momoi that roped him into going shopping this time. Women really were scary. Or maybe it was just the ones he knew. Why did life have to be so cruel? Why didn't he know someone more like Mai-chan?

"How does this one look on me?" Maya asked as she stepped out of the dressing room.

He didn't care, he really didn't care.

"Uh, it looks great," Aomine said in a monotone voice.

"Hmm, if Aomine-kun thinks it looks good..." she pondered for a moment. "Ahh, I can't decide between this one or the other one!"

"Why not just get both?" Aomine suggested, just wondering when this was going to end.

"Ah, good idea! You're so smart," Maya smiled and ran back into the dressing room.

This... date... or whatever you'd call it, wasn't something Aomine was looking forward to that weekend. He figured he'd be stoked to spend the day with a girl like Maya, but it ended up being the opposite. Maybe it'd be better if he got to feel up her boobs later... but even that might not fully make up for it.

He looked down at his phone and aimlessly poked around on it for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. He wasn't sure what he was expecting to happen, but he kept compulsively checking.

"Why do you keep checking your phone? Is it your girlfriend - wouldn't she get mad if she found out you were with me?" Maya giggled, apparently she was done trying on outfits.

"Don't have one," Aomine simply said and stood up.

"Oh? It isn't that pink-haired manager I see you with all the time?" She asked.

"Satsuki? No way," Aomine sighed.

"Hmm, so that means you're free game," Maya winked before walking up to the register. She insisted she paid for the shopping spree that day since she had her dad's card. Good thing she was a rich kid, Aomine knew he definitely couldn't have afforded all the crap she bought that day.

"Ah, thanks sooo much for coming with me today! I promise next time we'll do something you like instead. I can't play basketball at all, though," Maya hummed as they walked down the street.

"Next time?" Aomine asked.

"Yeah... Or do you not want to hang out with me again?" Maya said with a bit of a sad look on her face.

"Err..." Aomine scratched his head. She wasn't a bad person, but... "Just didn't know if you'd want to or not."

"Of course I'd want to!" she smiled.

Well shit, again he got roped into another day out with Maya.

* * *

"Why are you following me?" Kagami shouted after he noticed that Aomine wasn't heading in the direction of his house.

"Cuz I'm hungry," Aomine replied rather matter-of-factly.

"I told you I'm not going to be cooking you food all the time," Kagami knew exactly what Aomine was implying.

"Aw, come on. You can't expect me to taste food that good and not go back for more," Aomine said casually.

Kagami didn't know whether Aomine was just complimenting him so he'd make him more food or if he was actually genuine about it. Maybe a little of both.

"Well, if you're going to insist I make you food, the least you could do is help me with the shopping," Kagami said.

"Eh, guess I could do that," Aomine shrugged.

Kagami didn't think Aomine would be so compliant, but he actually walked with him to the store. He must really want food.

It was bizarre for him to have Aomine in his apartment for the first time. The guy who definitely got his blood boiling upon their first meeting had, only a few days ago, been sitting casually on his couch and eating his food. The atmosphere wasn't necessarily awkward but it was... strange. Definitely strange.

"So, what do you want?" Kagami asked, grabbing a basket.

"Huh? I get to pick?" Aomine asked in surprise.

"Well you were the one so eager to eat my food so I figured you might have something in mind."

"Hm..." Aomine though for a moment. "Teriyaki burgers?"

"You could just go to Maji for that!" Kagami furrowed his brow.

"Yeah, but they won't be like Maji's right?" Aomine tried making a point.

Kagami let out a sigh, "Fine. Teriyaki burgers it is." He didn't really feel like arguing so he went along with Aomine's request.

It was weird to have Aomine tag along with him while shopping. It seemed like doing everything except playing basketball with Aomine was weird. He seemed bored but didn't complain - he better not since he's getting a meal out of it.

Aomine occasionally made comments about the ingredients Kagami was grabbing, and Kagami asked him a few times to go grab a couple things while he decided what to use for the meal, but otherwise he didn't make much conversation as he followed Kagami around the store.

After buying everything, it was a short walk to Kagami's apartment.

"Just wait on the couch like last time, I guess," Kagami said as he took the bags into the kitchen with him.

"You don't need any help?" Aomine asked.

Kagami froze in place and gave a face of disbelief, "Did you really just ask if I needed help?"

"Come on, I ain't that useless," Aomine retorted in defense.

"I don't know about that, and 'helping' doesn't seem like something you'd do," Kagami said, lying the ingredients out on the counter.

"You seem to think I'm this huge jerk," Aomine sighed.

"You aren't?" Kagami still looked a bit in disbelief.

"I only am if I'm dealing with people like you!" Aomine growled back.

"Well, that must mean you won't be needing my cooking huh?" Kagami glared at his 'house guest'.

Aomine grumbled and crossed his arms, unable to think of a comeback for that. His hunger shut him up pretty fast.

Kagami huffed. "Just go sit down until its ready like I said."

Aomine continued to mumble as he did what Kagami told him. Again, they were still arguing, but Kagami was making him food. Food he made upon request. Food he basically invited himself over for. It was just Aomine's natural reaction to start up an argument with Kagami, but he came to realize that there wasn't necessarily malice behind his words. It was just... how he functioned.

"Oi, Kagami," Aomine spoke up. The kitchen was open up into the living room so he figured they could hear each other.

"What?" Kagami replied, the sounds of cabinets opening and closing.

"What other kinds of foods can you make?" Aomine adjusted himself on the couch to see Kagami mixing something in a bowl.

"Uh, lots of things. And if I don't know how to make it I could just look it up or try to make it myself, I guess? I usually end up tweaking recipes to my liking anyway."

"Huh..." Aomine rested his head on his hand. "Too bad you aren't a girl. Although you probably wouldn't be a cute one."

Kagami looked up and glared at him, "You really don't want this food, do you?"

Aomine stopped where he was before he went any further. See? It was just so natural to provoke and agitate Kagami like that.

He turned back around on the couch, picking up the remote and turning on the TV.

"Fine, I'll shut up then. I just like getting you worked up like that," Aomine said coolly.

"Shut up..." he heard Kagami's quite but stern response behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another long wait between chapters. This seems to happen a lot, but I hope everyone is still enjoying the story! :x And just so you know, I will never abandon this or any other story, so don't worry! I've been busy the last couple weeks getting ready for a con! So if you follow any of my other stories, please expect a slow update with them as well. Sorry for the waits. :
> 
> But anyway, I'm glad I got a new chapter of this out. ^^ I really wish I could try Kagami's cooking too, hehe.
> 
> Everyone's support helps me so much :3 So thank you and see you next time! ~ :*


	13. Chapter 13

School was out, the weather was hot enough to see heatwaves rising from the cement, people were wearing considerably less clothing - it was definitely summer.

Although Kagami learned how to play basketball on an outdoor court, it was times like these when he would rather be inside the cool gym. He wiped a more-than-usual amount of sweat from his brow as he watched Aomine - with just as much sweat dripping down his body - casually dribble the ball back to half court.

"How about we take a break," Kagami was breathing a little heavy. It felt like they were out there playing for hours, but it couldn't have been more than thirty minutes.

"Sounds like a good idea..." Aomine seemed beat too and they both headed over to the bench.

Water never tasted so good as Kagami chugged half the bottle in one go. He looked over at Aomine to see him pouring the remaining water over his head. He sighed slightly at the cool water running off his hair and down his body.

"Good idea..." Kagami said before dumping his bottle on top of his head as well.

"Heh..." he heard Aomine give a short laugh next to him.

"What?" Kagami raised an eyebrow and looked over at Aomine again.

"Your hair is usually sticking up so it looks funny to see it flat like that," Aomine patted at Kagami's head.

"I could say the same to you," Kagami knocked Aomine's arm away from him.

"You know, I'm not sure if its just me, but I think its too damn hot to play basketball," Aomine said, placing his towel around his neck.

"... I actually agree with you," Kagami sighed.

"Let's go back to your place then," Aomine gave a firm pat to Kagami's knee and stood up.

"Man, are you starting to think my apartment is yours now or something," Kagami scoffed.

"Its boring just sitting at my house all day," Aomine shrugged as he began to walk off the court with his things.

"I'm not your babysitter," Kagami grumbled, walking after him.

"Jeeze, can't I just come over as your friend?"

Kagami tensed up a bit, glancing at Aomine for a moment to see his face flushed with red.

"Sh-Shut up!" Aomine growled.

"I didn't say anything!" Kagami retorted.

* * *

Kagami sat lazily on the couch as he flipped through the stations on the television. When the two arrived at his apartment, Kagami went ahead and took a shower and now Aomine was in the middle of taking his. Ever since summer started, Aomine had come over to his place a few times. The two usually took showers if they were coming back from the court, not wanting to sit around, simmering in their sweat. Plus, Kagami probably wouldn't want a sweaty Aomine sprawled out on his couch.

He heard the shower turn off and a few minutes later, he heard the sound of footsteps walking out to the living room.

"Hey, I forgot a change of clothes. Got anything I could borrow?"

Aomine stood next to the TV, just a small towel wrapped around his waist and nothing else. A few drops of water still dripped down his body from his damp hair.

"What the heck..." Kagami looked away quickly. He wasn't sure why, it was just Aomine. "That doesn't mean you have to parade around my house naked," he grumbled as he stood up to get some clothes.

"I'm not naked - I have a towel," Aomine said simply.

"That's still naked!" Kagami retorted as he grabbed a random t-shirt and basketball shorts. "Here," he pushed them towards Aomine.

Aomine looked at the clothes, "No underwear?" He smirked.

"Like hell I'm letting you wear my underwear!" Kagami yelled.

"Fine, then my dick is going to be rubbing against your shorts," Aomine shrugged.

Kagami's face reddened a bit. That just sounded way worse if taken out of context, "I'll just wash them ten times," he grumbled.

Aomine chuckled as he walked back to the bathroom with the change of clothes.

Kagami let out a huff as he sat back down on the couch. He knew Aomine was purposely being annoying; and he did it a lot.

Aomine came back out, now fully clothed, and sat down on the couch next to Kagami with a long sigh.

"Feels a lot better in the air conditioning," Aomine mumbled as he slumped further down.

"Yeah..." Kagami felt like he could probably doze off.

The redhead felt a buzz in his pocket and pulled out his phone to see he had a message... from Kise? He opened it up and saw that it had an image file attached. He opened up the file and chuckled to himself at the picture with the words 'Me & Kurokocchi at the beach!' underneath it.

Kise was wearing a tacky aloha shirt and sunglasses, holding up a peace sign while Kuroko was wearing a huge hat that shaded him from the sun. If Kagami was right, Kise probably took the picture without telling Kuroko, since he looked like only moments before the picture was taken he was just casually taking a sip of his drink.

"What's so funny?" Kagami heard Aomine beside him.

"Oh, nothing," Kagami quickly closed the image and pocketed his phone.

Aomine grumbled a bit. "Was it from Tetsu?"

"Huh?" Kagami was a little puzzled.

"Never mind," Aomine scratched his head and kept his eyes on the television.

Kagami raised an eyebrow, but chose to turn his attention back to the TV. "Getting hungry?" He asked.

He could feel Aomine shift on the couch a little, "If you're cooking."

"Yeah, yeah, I am," Kagami lifted himself off the couch and walked towards the kitchen.

"What are you making?" Aomine asked.

"Something cold, maybe. Just some sandwiches I guess," Kagami opened the fridge and dug around.

"I can help," Aomine somehow managed to walk in the kitchen area without Kagami noticing him.

Kagami eyed Aomine for a moment with a few packages of meat and various other ingredients he got out of the fridge. "Whenever you try to be helpful that just makes me suspicious.

Kagami set down everything on the counter.

"What the hell, I really have to reconsider your opinion of me," Aomine huffed, his eyebrows furrowed.

Kagami scratched his head, "You never seem to care much about what other people think about you anyway."

"Why wouldn't I care about what you..." Aomine grumbled before finishing his sentence. "Where's the damn bread..."

"Hey... Are you really going to help make them?" Kagami asked in mild surprise. Every time Aomine asked to help with anything he always gave up pretty easily after a comment from Kagami.

"Yes! I have to change your mind somehow about how you think I'm just this terrible guy," Aomine growled. "I don't know why you even hang around me in the first place if you think that."

Was Aomine's feelings... hurt? Kagami was just saying those things because, really, Aomine didn't seem affected by anything. They cursed and argued at each other what seemed like daily, and just this simple thing got him so riled up?

"Sorry," Kagami grabbed a loaf of bread from the opposite counter and placed it beside the other ingredients. "I guess I'm just not used to you being... considerate."

"Whatever..." Aomine grunted.

Kagami didn't think making sandwiches would be much of a hassle, but he was astounded at how even Aomine was incompetent at making them.

"What the hell! Don't use that much meat!" Kagami scolded as he took off a few slices of meat on Aomine's sandwich.

"Oi, don't touch my food," Aomine barked back.

"I would like to have some meat on my sandwiches too, you know."

"Its not my fault you eat like twenty of them!"

See, this was more how it was like to be around Aomine. Just a bunch of senseless bickering. Maybe Kagami actually... liked it? No, no. It was just that this is the kind of Aomine he was used to, that's all.

* * *

This was boring. Aomine let out a long sigh as he tossed aside the gravure magazine he was reading. It was interesting maybe the first few times he looked through it, but now it was just dull (Mai-chan's magazines never got dull though, of course).

Aomine knew today was incredibly hot just like the past couple days had been. He could've gone to the gym to practice, but he didn't really feel like it. His mother was out doing some shopping and his father was at work. Aomine was home alone, but he didn't know how to take advantage of it. Honestly, he would rather just be somewhere else. But he wasn't sure where.

He pulled out his phone and mindlessly went through his contacts. Maybe he could call up Maya...? Now he knew he was really desperate if he was even considering that. He had been lucky enough that she hadn't bothered him for the past week. Aomine knew Momoi was busy at the gym, and honestly, she'd probably be as obnoxious to hang out with just as much as Maya anyway.

Aomine grunted, not wanting to admit to himself that he really didn't know all that many people. He would usually have no problem keeping himself entertained during the summer, so why now was he so desperate to find an excuse to just hang out?

He knew why in the back of his mind, but he didn't really want to admit it. For the first time in a long time, Aomine regularly saw and hung out with someone. A year ago, he would've never imagined that person would be Kagami. They saw each other even more now that school was out; very often, in fact. But he figured maybe he should give it a break. He didn't want to bother Kagami and just come over every day and expect the red-head to entertain him.

... See? He was even concerned about what the guy thought. Since when did they become so close? Before Aomine knew it, he and Kagami would just naturally spend their days together. It somehow became so natural.

Aomine grunted again as he finally just pressed the call button and brought the phone up to his ear. The other line rang a couple times before he heard the other end pick up.

"Hey," Kagami's voice sounded through the speaker. "What's up?"

"Uhh..." Now that Kagami was on the other end of the line, Aomine wasn't sure what to say. "... What're you doing?"

"Huh?" Kagami seemed a little surprised. Whenever they called each other, the conversation was always short and precise. One would say something like, 'meet me at the court in twenty minutes' and that would be about the extent of it. "I'm just watching TV... why?"

Aomine shrugged even though Kagami obviously couldn't see it, "Just wondering."

"Err..." Kagami paused for a moment, "Did you need something?"

"Um..." Aomine rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "You wanna come over?" He felt a bit of his pride slip away in that moment.

"... Really?" Kagami sounded surprised a second time.

"Yeah, why not?" Aomine shrugged again. "I've been to your place plenty of times and you've never been to mine. My mom's a good cook and I figured I owe you for all those times you've cooked for me..."

Kagami was silent on the other line for a moment, which made Aomine feel a small bit of panic.

"... Sure, I guess?" Kagami finally responded.

"Alright," Aomine let out an internal sigh of relief. He guessed he didn't sound too weird after all. "I'll message you my address then?"

"Sounds good."

They both hung up the phone and Aomine let out a long breath. He guessed he should call up his mom now to tell her there would be an extra guest at the dinner table before she was done grocery shopping.

* * *

It was maybe just a little awkward to be standing in Aomine's place for once. After Kagami took off his shoes at the entrance, Aomine stood by looking like he was feeling just as awkward. Kagami wasn't sure why he just went ahead and agreed to come over. Maybe he was curious about what his house looked like.

"Err," Aomine rubbed his neck on impulse. "Mom should be out shopping still. Do you want a drink or something?"

"Sure..." Anything to just have something to do, Kagami thought.

Aomine's house was pretty normal and tidy. Nothing stood out too much, except for some family photos and what looked like awards. They must be ones Aomine got from basketball.

"You like oolong tea, right?" Aomine asked as he opened the fridge.

"Yeah that sounds fine," Kagami replied as Aomine tossed him a can.

Aomine heard his cell go off and he quickly checked the message.

'So Kagami-kun is coming over to your place?'

It was from Kuroko. Aomine was a bit shocked to see the message, there was only one way Kuroko could've known.

'Did Kagami tell you he was?' He typed out.

Kagami took a sip of his drink and looked over at Aomine. "Any idea what your mom is making for dinner?" He attempted at some small talk.

"Ah, no, she didn't tell me. But she seemed really excited when I told her I invited someone over..." Aomine grumbled.

"Haha," Kagami chuckled a little, "I'm already starting to think you don't take after your mom much and I haven't even met her yet."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Aomine furrowed his brow as he heard his phone go off again.

'He only asked if I had been to your place before and what it was like, but thanks for confirming that he is coming over. What made you invite him?'

Damn that Kuroko! He really was too crafty. Aomine tried not to let his emotions on his face show as he texted back a short reply.

'Just felt like it. Bye.'

The sound of the front door opening could be heard from the kitchen and Aomine turned his attention away from his phone.

"I'm home," Aomine's mom called out.

"Welcome home," Aomine said as he began to make his way to the front door.

Kagami followed him, mentally preparing himself to meet Mrs. Aomine.

She was a relatively tall and attractive woman with long hair. She looked a bit aged in the face but almost in... a graceful way? Just looking at her, Kagami felt like she was a kind person. Yeah, he wasn't sure what Aomine inherited from her at all.

Aomine grabbed a few of the grocery bags from her hands.

"Thank you, Daiki," she said warmly before looking over at Kagami with a smile. "And you must be Daiki's friend!"

"Yes," Kagami bowed a bit, "Kagami Taiga - its nice to meet you, Mrs. Aomine."

"I finally got to meet the boy you always play basketball with!" The woman looked happily over at Aomine who looked like he just wanted to take the bags to the kitchen as fast as possible.

"Here, I'll grab the rest of the bags for you," Kagami offered, reaching for the remaining groceries in her hand.

"Oh, thank you so much," she replied.

Both boys set the bags down in the kitchen while Aomine's mother followed them inside.

"Now you two go and play and I'll get dinner started," she said cheerily.

Aomine grumbled, "Mom, we aren't going to go 'play', we're in high school already."

"Oh, Daiki, just humor me, will you? You hardly ever bring a friend over so I can't help but get excited," she hummed as she started to take the groceries out of the bags.

Aomine sighed, "Let's just go to my room."

Kagami tried not to laugh at Aomine's agony, he guessed in the end someone like him had a pretty normal family after all.

And speaking of normal, Aomine's room was pretty, well, typical. Of course, like Kagami's room, there were various basketball memorabilia strewn about. And, of course, a pin-up of some model he probably likes.

"I'm kind of surprised your room is so clean, your mom must do it," Kagami commented.

"Shut up," Aomine said without much impact, casually taking a seat on his bed and flopping down on his back.

"Well, she seems nice," Kagami lingered by the doorway of the room.

"Yeah, she is, but she hasn't stopped treating me like a kid," Aomine grunted.

"Isn't that how most parents are, though," Kagami took a seat at the chair by Aomine's desk.

"Well, not your parents, apparently. They even let you live on your own in a different country," Aomine sighed. "Lucky."

"It is nice having a place by myself..." Kagami leaned back in the chair a bit. "But it kind of gets lonely... and even at this age, we kind of want to depend on our parents for some things, you know?"

Aomine glanced over at Kagami, "I suppose that's true."

Kagami scanned the room a bit more, trying to think of something for them to do while they waited for dinner.

"Oh, you have video games - do you have Mario Kart?" Kagami asked.

"Hm? No, I don't..."

"Aw..." Kagami said with a bit of disappointment, "I played it at Kuroko's place once and it was fun."

Aomine let out a barely audible grumble, "I have... Super Smash Brothers."

"Oh, that's the fighting one, right?" Kagami perked up a bit.

"... How much experience do you have with video games?" Aomine sat up and looked up a little wearily at Kagami.

"Err..." Kagami thought for a moment. "I had a Nintendo 64, but once I got into basketball I didn't really bother with video games all that much."

"Hah," Aomine let out a short laugh as he got off the bed and grabbed a controller, holding it out to Kagami. "Then I guess it'll be pretty easy beating you."

"No way! I was pretty good at Mario Kart, you know," Kagami snatched the controller from Aomine's hand.

"This and Mario Kart aren't the same at all!" Aomine retorted. The only thing that was the same were probably the curses coming out of one's mouth as they played them. He grabbed a controller for himself and turned on the game. "Wanna play versus or team up?"

"I want to fight against you," Kagami said bluntly.

Aomine scoffed, "Fine then, you're on."

* * *

"Shit!" Kagami shouted, barely keeping enough composure to not throw the controller down. "Why are you so good at this?"

"Dumbass, it's my game and I have way more experience with it, I told you that already," Aomine still wore a snarky grin on his face.

"Yeah but it can't be  _that_  hard, its just mashing buttons," Kagami pouted.

"Tsk, tsk," Aomine shook his head, "That kind of thinking is why you keep losing, Bakagami."

"Shut up!" Kagami growled as the game brought up the character select screen again. "Maybe the character I'm using just sucks..."

"I just think its you who sucks," Aomine scoffed.

"You wanna say that, again, bastard?" Kagami glared at Aomine maliciously.

But Aomine couldn't help but let out a laugh. It seemed like no matter what, if it was competitive, Kagami was going to get all riled up about it.

"Boys, dinner is ready!" Neither of them heard Aomine's mother knock on the door, or open it for that matter. "Sorry for interrupting your fun, but I'm sure you two are hungry," she said with a kind smile.

"Ah... Yeah," Aomine stood up, Kagami doing the same.

They both followed Aomine's mother to the kitchen, where Kagami was a bit taken aback seeing an older-looking Aomine sitting at the table already.

Obviously, it was his father. And just by looking at him, he seemed to have an aura even more intense than his son's. It wasn't necessarily threatening, but without saying a word, you could already tell he was the boss. He had the same tan skin and blue hair as Aomine as well as the sharp facial features. Kagami wondered if Aomine really had inherited anything from his mother. Well, she had the same eye color. That might've been about it.

"Hello, sir," Kagami said before sitting down. Like he knew he should be the first one to greet the man.

"Hello. Kagami Taiga, is it?" The father's voice was deep. "Thank you for joining us for dinner."

"No, thank you for having me over," Kagami tried to remember his manners, he knew they tended to slip when he spoke Japanese.

Aomine just casually sat down at the table without a word. Kagami did so as well.

"Here's your beer, honey," Mrs. Aomine set a can of Kirin in front of her husband. "I know its summer so I decided we could have some zaru soba. I made some tempura as well," Mrs. Aomine started setting out the dishes.

"That sounds great!" Kagami replied.

He immediately wanted to start grabbing for the food, but had to stop himself. Is serving yourself first considered rude at a guest's house?

"Go ahead, Taiga-kun, you can serve yourself first," Mrs. Aomine encouraged.

"Th-Thank you very much," Kagami nodded.

He began to pick up the tempura one-by-one. It felt a little awkward having everyone watch him. When he got to his sixth one, he felt Aomine nudge him on the side. Kagami felt like spinning around and cursing him out, but he remembered - manners!

Slowly he looked over at Aomine who mouthed 'don't take so much, dumbass!'.

Oh, that's right, three other people had to eat. And its not like Aomine's mother knew he ate enough for the entire table. Kagami decided to move on to the soba noodles next, trying to keep in mind the size of the portion he was taking.

The next to serve themselves was Mr. Aomine, his son, then Mrs. Aomine. Kagami hoped that there was enough for her to eat at the end.

"Ah, this is really great, Mrs. Aomine," Kagami complimented after trying the food.

"Oh, it isn't much," she held up her hand. "Its not that hard to make after all."

"But you have to cook it just right," Kagami replied. "I can tell you cooked it at the perfect temperature and time."

"Ah, is that so," she smiled slightly. "That's right! Daiki told me you can cook so well! It made me a little jealous, honestly, hearing him say how good your cooking was. But if the cook himself is complimenting my food I guess its alright." She chuckled a bit.

Kagami looked over at Aomine to see his face flushed with red. Kagami was almost thankful that his parents were in America so he wouldn't have to suffer like Aomine was whenever he was over at his house. But he felt kind of good finding out that Aomine bragged about his cooking.

"You play basketball too, right?" Mr. Aomine spoke up.

"Yes sir, on Seirin's team," Kagami felt his body get a bit more rigid.

"Seirin, huh," the father thought for a moment. "They won the Winter Cup last year, right?"

"Yes sir," Kagami nodded.

"Hm," Mr. Aomine took a sip of his beer. "Very impressive. I guess its good you're getting Daiki motivated again."

"Ah..." Kagami stumbled a bit, not sure how to respond to that. "Well, we've been kind of helping each other a lot... with practicing. I've needed some help since this past Interhigh." Kagami didn't want to make it seem like he didn't have his flaws either. Aomine honestly... was a lot of help in getting him out of this rut he had.

Mr. Aomine glanced over at his son. "Just keep practicing, you two."

It sounded more like a demand than some encouraging words.

* * *

Kagami didn't want to overstay his welcome, and left shortly after dinner was finished. Honestly, he wasn't quite full after it, and he didn't want to offend Aomine's mom by asking for more food.

Once he arrived at his apartment, he opened up his fridge and scanned it. He supposed an omelet would do, those filled him up pretty good.

As he was gathering up the ingredients, he heard his phone go off. He sat down the carton of eggs and looked at the message.

'I didn't know you could act like such a goody two-shoes.'

Kagami snorted a laugh and wrote back a reply.

'Of course I'm going to be nice to your mom! And your dad is intimidating as hell.'

He pocketed his phone and started up the stove, putting a pan on the burner. He got a reply back quickly.

'Yeah, yeah. Was just weird to see. Now mom won't shut up about you. And dad is just always like that.'

Kagami smirked as he began typing.

'Maybe if you were more like your mom you'd be more likable.'

Kagami cracked a few eggs in a bowl.

Another text.

'Well I guess I'm likable enough for you cuz you keep hanging out with me.'

He shook his head.

'It's more like I feel obligated to be around you.'

Whipped up the eggs and poured them into the pan.

'Jerk.'

Text messages were pretty hard to convey emotions. Kagami was sure Aomine wasn't bothered by that comment, but one always wonders, you know?

Almost a second later, another text arrived.

'Thanks for coming over, I guess.'

Kagami laughed to himself again.

'Next time I'll totally kick your ass in smash!'

* * *

"Oh, Daiki," his mom caught him on the way to the kitchen to get a drink. "Your birthday is coming up soon, is there anything specific you're wanting this year?"

The past couple years he'd only ask for money or a new pair of shoes. Aomine wasn't sure why she still asked this year. But he thought for a moment - was there really something he actually wanted for his birthday this year?

She stood by patiently waiting for his answer.

"Um..." Aomine opened up the fridge and grabbed a soda. "Maybe... Mario Kart?"

"Huh?" His mother tilted her head a little.

"N-Never mind," he shut the fridge door. "I'll get it myself, so I'm fine with just getting money for my birthday."

His mother smiled. "Alright, dear."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I took way too long to update this, arg! But I hope you liked this chapter and therefore, that makes up for my sins (rofl)!  
> I do, personally, like this chapter because I feel like this is a good turning point in their relationship - where they actually would consider each other as friends (took 'em long enough, but they are aho/baka).
> 
> Here's to me getting the next chapter out sooner. :x
> 
> Thank you for the support and enjoying my story ^^ See you next time~!


	14. Chapter 14

Running on the sand, Kagami could feel his calves burn, his breathing already heavy, and sweat on top of sweat from practicing all day. Kuroko kept up next to him in much the same state. It was pretty amazing that this time last year, Kuroko would probably have passed out by now, yet there he was keeping up with Kagami.

Their only saving grace was that the sun had already set and a cool breeze blew across the beach. The inn where the team was staying at came into sight and they slowed down their jog as they came up onto the pavement. The two heaved heavy breaths without saying a word as they made their way up to a drink machine. Kuroko bought two bottles of water and tossed one to Kagami.

"Thanks…" Kagami said between breaths, unscrewing the cap and taking a swig.

Kuroko took a few generous gulps as well.

"We'd better head to the baths before they close," Kagami said, nodding his head towards the inn.

Kuroko simply gave a nod of his own in response as he followed behind Kagami.

It seemed like everyone else was done as the baths seemed completely empty. Luckily, they made it on time and they both stripped down and headed towards the showers to clean off all the sweat and dirt that had accumulated throughout the day.

"I'm impressed you kept up this time," Kagami commented as he scrubbed soap along his arms.

"Of course I would improve since last year," Kuroko replied.

"Yeah, honestly I feel like I kind of took a step back since this season started, but I'm feeling a lot better, you know?" Kagami continued. "This training camp was really the final thing I needed to get myself together again. Especially since Shuutoku is here again too - maybe it'll end up being an annual thing."

"I think I did hear Riko and Shuutoku's coach talking about it earlier today," Kuroko said. "And I'm glad you're getting your confidence back."

"Yeah, me too. I was a little worried about it for a bit," Kagami said with a sigh.

"Do you think there's something going on between Midorima-kun and Takao-kun?" Kuroko asked.

"Huh? What do you mean? They seemed the same to me - always together, Midorima bossing Takao around but Takao not taking any of it seriously. If you're talking about their playing though, yeah, I guess they do seem a bit different. They were in sync before, but now its like they know what each other is going to do before the other does it," Kagami rinsed the soap off his body.

"Yes, I noticed that too," Kuroko agreed. "Do you think there's something else between them, though?"

Kagami paused for a moment and looked over at Kuroko, "I don't think I get what you're asking."

"Maybe they're dating," Kuroko shrugged.

"Huh? What?" Kagami's words echoed in the empty shower room. "Kuroko... I know that you and Kise are... you know... And I'm fine with that, but what are the chances of someone else we know being like that too?"

"It isn't impossible," Kuroko said nonchalantly, "Also I saw them yesterday after practice and Takao-kun was being very clingy with Midorima-kun, and Midorima-kun wasn't pushing him away."

"... Are you spying on them?" Kagami narrowed his eyes.

"No," Kuroko said as innocently as possible. "I just wanted to get a drink from the vending machine and I so happened to see them. Anyway," Kuroko continued without skipping a beat, "Whether they are dating or just friends, its obvious Shuutoku will be much more difficult to defeat the next time we go up against them."

"Y-Yeah," Kagami was surprised Kuroko would so casually bring up something like that and leave it as such. Maybe since Kuroko was dating a guy, he could sense this kind of thing? No, that was silly. "But we've improved just as much," he continued.

"I feel good about the next Winter Cup," Kuroko agreed.

After cleaning off, the two headed to the baths. Getting into the hot water felt like all the tenseness and strain in his muscles just melted off of Kagami. He sighed as he closed his yes and leaned his head back.

For a few moments it was quiet between the two teammates as they reveled in how good the water felt on their tired bodies.

"I guess Aomine-kun has been a big help for you too," Kuroko spoke up.

"Yeah… I guess he has," Kagami mumbled.

Kuroko was a little surprised at how easily Kagami admitted that. "I would expect you to say he's just been a nuisance."

"Nah," Kagami shrugged, "Not like he isn't. He's an idiot, but… He's honestly been pretty good at helping me out. It was weird at first, and I hate to say it - but its been kind of fun."

Kuroko raised one of his eyebrows, "I guess you two could be considered friends now?"

"Friends… I wonder if that's how he feels about me," Kagami shifted slightly in the water. "Well, he did call me his 'friend' the other day."

"Aomine-kun? Called you his friend? Are we talking about the same person?" Kuroko sounded a little shocked.

Kagami chuckled a bit, "I know, right? He'd probably kill me if he found out I told you. Oh, and if he found out I told you about how it went when I went to his place and met his parents because he invited me over."

"That alone baffles me," Kuroko commented.

"Well, he invites himself over to my place all the damn time," Kagami huffed. "He's… not so bad though, I guess."

Kuroko smiled knowingly, "Birds of a feather, I suppose…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

After a bit more of small talk and relaxing, drying off and getting dressed, the two headed back together to their part of the inn. They were sharing a room with Koganei, Mitobe, and Hyuuga. It looked like the three were playing a card game.

"Oh, there you two are!" Koganei said as Kagami and Kuroko walked in.

"You two shouldn't overwork yourselves too hard, you know," Hyuuga scolded lightly.

Mitobe was quiet as usual.

"Yeah, we came back before the baths closed so we didn't stay out too late," Kagami said and sat at his futon.

"Ah, I can't believe Mitobe won again!" Koganei whined as Mitobe laid out his winning hand.

Hyuuga clicked his tongue as he dropped his cards down.

Kagami dug through his bag to get his phone to see he had one message.

'Surviving camp?'

Kagami couldn't help but smirk a little too himself slightly. He typed out a reply.

'Obviously. Something like this is only going to make me stronger. You've been so lazy this season you're probably going to drop out after the first day of your camp.'

Teikou's and Touo's training camps were scheduled one week after another, so Kagami and Aomine wouldn't be able to see each other for those two weeks. Kagami guessed that was alright since they were getting in more practice than he would with any one-on-one time he'd have with Aomine. And practicing with your actual teammates was pretty important. But he hated to admit that it was kind of a bummer he and Aomine's one-on-ones had to be put on hold.

Kuroko seemed to have joined in on the next card game. It didn't take long for a reply.

'Like hell. You won't be able to even get near the basket after training camp is done. I'll totally destroy you next game.'

Kagami heaved a small laugh and wrote out his message.

'Oh, you are totally on. I'm going to make you eat your words.'

"Ohh, what's this? Is Kagami texting his girlfriend?" Koganei's nearly catlike voice spoke up after Kagami sent the message.

"What? N-no… the hell…" Kagami mumbled, pocketing his phone.

"Its probably Aomine-kun," Kuroko replied bluntly.

"Kuroko!" Kagami scolded.

"Huh? Aomine? Touo's Aomine?" Hyuuga asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Didn't you know - they've been hanging out lately," Kuroko continued as he looked at his cards.

"You don't have to go telling people everyone's business Kuroko, jeez," Kagami grumbled and chucked a pillow at him. Kuroko seemed to completely ignore it hitting his back.

"I thought you two hated each other," Koganei tilted his head. Mitobe nodded next to him.

"We don't… hate each other," Kagami rubbed his neck, "We're just really competitive, that's all."

Hyuuga narrowed his eyes a bit as he looked at Kagami, "I'm kind of surprised. That guy doesn't seem pleasant to be around at all."

"Aomine-kun is just very sensitive so he puts up a façade," Kuroko said matter-of-factly.

"Eh?" Kagami turned his head to look over at Kuroko placing a card down.

"You can't believe his tough guy act is real 100% of the time, can you?" Kuroko glanced over at Kagami.

"Well, he does talk a lot of big game," Kagami mumbled to himself.

"You're just getting to know Aomine-kun. Also - you're pretty dense so it might take you a little longer than most people," Kuroko laid down his hand as the others simultaneously groaned over the quick victory.

"You can be pretty cruel while giving advice, you know?" Kagami gave a jab to Kuroko's arm.

* * *

"Ah, Dai-chan!" Momoi called out.

Aomine was slowly walking to the locker room after their last day of training camp.

"What," he growled in a low tone, stopping and looking towards Momoi.

"I just want to say I'm proud of you," she said with a smile.

He furrowed his brow while wiping the sweat from his face with a towel, "What are you talking about?"

"The fact that you came every day for training camp, silly!" She said with a light nudge to Aomine's arm, but quickly wiped her hand on her shorts, underestimating how sweaty her childhood friend was at the moment.

"Whatever," he mumbled as he turned around and continued walking towards the locker room.

"Kagamin must be doing something right to get you this motivated," Momoi followed after him with a bit of a hop to her step.

"I just don't want to be outdone by him, that's all," Aomine huffed a response.

"Well if that's what its going to take then I'm grateful for Kagamin," Momoi hummed.

"Don't follow me into the locker room," Aomine said as he opened the door.

"I'm going to help the coach with some things so don't wait up for me!" Momoi shouted after him.

Aomine walked over to the lockers to grab his change clothes and his cellphone. He grunted as he sat down on the bench, checking his messages.

'Tomorrow on the court noon?'

Aomine unconsciously smirked, feeling a fluttering excitement in his chest as he typed out his response.

'You're on.'

* * *

The day was unusually hot. Well, it was the peak of summer. But it seemed like the sun decided to bare down a little harder on the black asphalt that day. It seemed like the breeze decided not to blow that day too. Stagnant heat bearing down and rising from the baked asphalt. But you wouldn't have guessed the conditions were so extreme by watching Aomine and Kagami going all out on the basketball court, with the ground so hot you'd think it'd melt the rubber right off their shoes.

Both were drenched in sweat, heaving big, but steady breaths - a one-on-one they haven't experienced in a good while. The score was 3 - 2 with Kagami in the lead. Kagami ripped past Aomine with almost ungodly like speed, especially in this heat. He jumped off the ground in that surreal way that he did, as if he was floating, and slammed the ball into the net.

"Shit…" Aomine said in between panting breaths as Kagami brought the ball back to half court.

"Its 4 - 2 now," Kagami said in a ragged breath, but a smile still on his face.

"Yeah, yeah, don't stall," Aomine retorted.

Kagami dribbled the ball in front of him, running hundreds of plays in his head, trying to figure out what would be best to outdo Aomine.

But Aomine wasn't one to underestimate his current opponent - with catlike reflexes, he snatched the ball from Kagami and darted for the net.

"Gh!" Kagami was blindsided, but followed Aomine and caught up with him quickly.

Kagami went in for a steal, but even faster than before, Aomine had already turned and evaded Kagami completely.

With confidence, Aomine approached the net and went for the shot. A flash of red was in front of him in an instant - Kagami caught up yet again and slammed the ball away from its path towards the net.

With great speed and precision, Kagami was already halfway to his basket before Aomine could even react.

"Dammit…!" Aomine gritted his teeth, chasing after his rival.

But it was too late - Kagami was already making his shot, the ball going into the net flawlessly.

"Yes!" Kagami shouted and pumped both of his fists. "Haha! I won! I did it!" A huge smile was plastered on his sweat covered face as he nearly jumped for joy.

Aomine looked on at Kagami's victory. This didn't feel like when he lost to Seirin during the Winter Cup at all. He didn't feel a sense of defeat or confusion. He didn't feel like something in him changed. No, it felt much different.

Aomine walked up to his celebrating rival and placed a firm hand on his shoulder. Kagami stopped and quickly looked over at Aomine.

"Good job, man," A small smile was on Aomine's face.

Kagami's face gave a look of pure shock, he seemed speechless for a moment before nodding. "Yeah… thanks."

Aomine let go of his grip and walked towards the bench. "Ah, now I need a shower, lets go to your place - I'm starving."

"H-Huh?" Kagami shouted. "I win and I still have to make food for you!?"

"We can stop by Maji on the way back," Aomine took a huge gulp from his water. "I'll treat you. Ah - but only the first five burgers. I can't afford to feed your ass."

"What the hell, you're always eating my food! You probably owe me like, fifty burgers!" Kagami said as he stomped towards the bench to grab his things.

"Yeah, yeah," Aomine said as he started to walk off the court.

Kagami caught up with him after grabbing his things. "I'm serious, you know!" He said, sounding rather immature.

"Ah, jeeze, fine! Just not all at once, alright? I'll just buy you a few every time we go to Maji," Aomine scratched his head.

"I'll be taking count..." Kagami grumbled.

"You're such a kid," Aomine sighed.

"I don't want to hear that coming from you," Kagami retorted.

Aomine just rolled his eyes and they walked in silence for a moment. "Now you can keep those shoes without complaining though."

"Huh?" Kagami tilted his head slightly as he looked at Aomine next to him.

"Dumbass, did you forget the whole reason why we were doing those one-on-ones in the first place? Those shoes," Aomine pointed with a nod down at Kagami's feet. "You were so gung-ho about paying me back for them."

Kagami glanced down at the shoes he was wearing. He had nearly forgotten that was why all this started in the first place - these shoes that were already too worn in to be given back.

"Its not like I would've ever taken them back though," Aomine continued. "I don't give things to people and ask for them back."

Kagami looked back over at Aomine, "Thanks. For playing all those one-on-ones, I mean." His voice sounded a little melancholy.

Aomine let out a small huff of air. "What are you talking about? Are you saying you don't want to play at the court anymore now?"

"N-No, that's not-"

"Then stop acting like its over. You'll be begging me to come kick your ass at basketball by tomorrow like always," Aomine looked away from Kagami, running a hand through his hair.

Kagami let out a soft snort of laughter, "Alright."

* * *

Kagami walked up to the house he had only seen once before. The other day Aomine, trying to sound casual, but with a note of slight unease in his voice, asked if Kagami wanted to come over to his house for a second time. 'Mom has been wondering if you'd visit again,' was the excuse he used. It was kind of funny how bad Aomine was at lying, and oddly enough, Kagami felt like he wouldn't mind seeing the Aomine household again. School was starting in a few days so he wasn't sure when he'd have the next chance to come over.

With a few solid knocks at the door he waited for a response. He heard a very muffled voice, obviously Aomine's on the other side. Within moments, the door opened.

"Hey," Aomine greeted and stepped aside to let Kagami in.

"Hey," Kagami mimicked as he stepped inside and began to take off his shoes.

"Hello, Kagami-kun!" Mrs. Aomine's voice chimed in.

"Hello, Mrs. Aomine, thank you for having me over," Kagami greeted.

"Of course, of course," she said cheerily. "I'm so glad you could come over - I know Daiki has probably been wanting to play his new game with someone."

"Mom!" Aomine nearly shouted, it was an almost stifled yell between gritted teeth.

"Game? What game?" Kagami seemed unaffected by Aomine's mother and her unknowing attempts to embarrass her son. It was probably because he sympathized a little with Aomine - his mom was much the same when guests had come to their house when he was younger.

"I got Mario Kart the other day," Aomine shrugged.

"Oh, the new one?" Kagami asked excitedly.

"Y-Yeah," Aomine nodded.

"He bought it with his birthday money," Mrs. Aomine spoke up again.

Aomine gave a rough sigh, "Let's just go play, yeah?" He seemed to want to leave her presence as soon as possible.

"You two go on, I'll have dinner ready in about an hour!" She called after them.

Aomine let out another sigh, this one sounding more exhausted than the last.

"I didn't know it was your birthday - happy birthday, I guess?" Kagami sat down on the floor by the bed.

"Its alright, it was a few days ago," Aomine said while he grabbed two controllers, turning on the system, and joining Kagami on the floor.

"Huh, my birthday is in August too," Kagami said as Aomine handed a controller to him.

"Really?" Aomine raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I think it was when you were doing your training camp. It was on the 2nd."

"Oh... Happy late birthday to you too," Aomine mumbled.

Kagami gave a small snicker, "Thanks."

At the character select screen, Aomine picked Bowser while Kagami picked Yoshi.

"Psh, why Yoshi?" Aomine commented.

"Yoshi is the best character! You can't mock my choice when you picked Bowser. But I guess he's slow and dumb just like you," Kagami retorted.

"You already want to start something?" Aomine said as he nudged Kagami with his elbow. "You won't be so snarky when I totally wipe the floor with you."

"You talk big but you've only had this game for a few days," Kagami said with a smirk.

"We'll see what you say afterward," Aomine gripped his controller and the two stared intently at the screen as the countdown for the race started.

* * *

"Well you boys must've been having fun," Mrs. Aomine said once the two sat at the dinner table.

There was probably a few angry words and yelling exchanged during their playthrough of Mario Kart. Probably. It ended up in Kagami barely beating out Aomine, but of course, Aomine left it off with an 'its not over yet'.

"S-Sorry about the noise," Kagami said, a little embarrassed.

"No, no, its fine," Mrs. Aomine replied with a smile.

"Is dad coming home late?" Her son asked.

"Yes, he called a bit ago. They've been giving him a lot of overtime lately," she said with a soft sigh.

Kagami was secretly kind of glad. He was sure Mr. Aomine was an alright guy, but the aura of the room was almost oppressing when he was there. His wife and son were probably just used to it, but for an outsider like him it was pretty noticeable.

He remembered his manners from last time, not taking too much food and eating a 'normal' portion. Again, he didn't want to offend Mrs. Aomine by saying he was still hungry by the end of the meal.

"I hope you can still come over when school starts," Mrs. Aomine said as Kagami was making his way to the door after dinner.

"I'll try to make time," Kagami said with a soft smile.

He left the house with a halfhearted goodbye to Aomine. It was sort of awkward to say goodbye when leaving his house for some reason.

As Kagami walked home, the sun was beginning to set. Once school started back up he'd be practicing a lot, especially when Winter Cup would begin to approach.

The confidence he had lost after Interhigh was renewed tenfold now. He felt more confident than ever before. And yes - it was intimidating to know that his opponents probably had also improved. The thought of an even tougher Rakuzan was honestly terrifying. But that wasn't going to break him down.

Kagami looked down at his feet - at the shoes Aomine had given him and he had nearly forgotten that they were the reason their one-on-ones started. Would they have had this kind of relationship if it weren't for Momoi forcing Aomine to give these shoes to him? Would they just still be heated rivals who snarled at each other every time they met? Would Aomine still be troublesome and uncaring about basketball?

Kagami wasn't sure if something like 'fate' was real, but this surely was something that wouldn't have happened under any other circumstances. He just guessed this was how his life was laid out from a long time ago. But if life was all predetermined, that'd be pretty boring - wouldn't it?

He dug through his pockets to get his phone, seeing one unread message on the screen.

'Don't forget to finish your summer homework.'

"Ah, shit!" Kagami lifted his hand to his forehead. He would've nearly forgotten if Kuroko hadn't texted him.

'Thanks, nearly forgot.' He sent the message and pocketed his phone again.

After a few moments it buzzed.

'No problem. I know you've been too busy with Aomine to care about anything else.'

"Aww, come on," Kagami grumbled.

He wrote out another message to his friend.

'Can I come over and play Mario Kart this week? I want to get better at it.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all - Happy birthday to my favorite aho, Aomine Daiki! I'm glad I was able to get this finished just in time for his birthday~ So I hope this is a good present for anyone else celebrating it. :3
> 
> I had a really unfortunate event happen with my computer. Basically the hard disk corrupted and I lost everything )': My computer is fixed now, but its good that I post these stories or else they would've all been lost forever. I did end up losing a couple oneshots I had slowly been working on, but hopefully I'll be able to replicate them and maybe make them better.
> 
> Anyways, thanks so much for all the support you guys give me! It really does help. (: See you next time~! :*

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to follow me on twitter ([Squatta_Writes](https://twitter.com/Squatta_Writes)) for updates of my progress!  
> Thank you very much for taking the time to read my story. ^^


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